Women In Business Success Story – Scentsy

A group of about forty women were delighted to hear an entrepreneur success story at a recent “Women In Business,”  luncheon in Layton, Utah. Two women who seemed like your next door neighbors, spoke about how they created a product that is now being sold by over 35,000 business consultants in the United States and bringing in revenues over $100 million annually.

Kara Egan and her sister-in-law Colette Gunnell,  shared their story of creating a simple product that would bring many people pleasure. They created a wickless candle that was warmed by a low wattage light bulb. With many different scents for people they decided to name their company “Scentsy.”

Kara and her family were struggling financially because of her husband’s health problems. After watching an Oprah show on Millionaire Moms, Kara became determined that there must be something she could do to help her family. If regular people like the people she saw on the Oprah show can create products, then why couldn’t she do that too?

After watching a neighbor melt some of her old scented candles in an old pot pouri burner, Kara got the idea to create scented flameless candles. She got on the phone with her sister-in-law and asked her if she would go into business with her.  Colette said, YES!

Building your own company from scratch is not without challenges, but these two women conquered them with their determination and ingenuity. One important strategy they used was to make sure they knew about all the products currently available that were similar to theirs. They bought many of these products and did tests on them. Repeatedly testing existing products and then creating a new product seemed to be the correct formula for their eventual success.

After manufacturing the products on their own and developing enough product for people to purchase, they started selling at local trade shows. It was at one of these trade shows that they met Orville Thompson and his wife Heidi. During one of the breaks at the long convention,  Heidi took some of Scentsy bars home to share with her family. Her family and friends enjoyed them so much and that got Heidi’s husband’s  attention.

Orville could see the business potential in this new product.  He talked to Kara and Colette about helping them take their business to the next level and they listened.  It was the contact that they made with Orville Thompson that began the transformation of their business from a local business to a nationwide business.

Orville and Heidi Thompson bought the entire company from Kara and Colette, who are now Scentsy consultants, on May 1, 2004.  They decided to market the flameless candles through direct marketing which opened up a new team of sales  people. The Scentsy products are manufactured in Meridian, Idaho where there are over 500 employees.

The two mothers, Kara and Colette, that created Scentsy are heroes to many women who strive to build successful businesses. Their determination, creativity and desire paid off for them as well has thousands of other Scentsy consultants. An entrepreneur’s dream come true. Congratulations!

The Value of Scarcity and Uniqueness in Business

Auctions can bring hefty prices for unique, rare items. Recently, a manual typewriter fetched the amount of $254,000.

Why the astronomical price? You may wonder about this because living in the digital age, who needs a typewriter?

Possibly similar to the sale of one of Michael Jackson’s glove, this memorabilia belonged to Cormac McCarthy, American fiction writer. From this humble looking typewriter, McCarthy typed more than 5 million words over a period of 50 years.

Cormac McCarthy, born in 1933, is an American novelist and playwright sometimes compared to Faulkner. Six of his novels were made into films. Well known for his 2007, Pulitzer prize winning, work of fiction called, “The Road.”

In 2008, McCarthy was awarded the Pen/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction. His work was recognized for qualities of excellence, ambition and scale of achievement during his writing career. This places him in the highest ranks of American literature.

People predicted his typewriter may go for $18K or so. Those predictions were far below the price it received. The large sum of money was donated to a scientific research organization, the Santa Fe Institute.

The qualities of uniqueness combined with scarcity can drive up the value of an item exponentially. With many competing businesses in similar niches popping up all over the web, thousands will collapse and a few will prosper. It seems to be a natural cycle of business.

If you want your Internet business to prosper, ask yourself if you have something to offer people that is both unique and scarce. The more you can meet this criteria, the better your business will do. What can you bring to the table that is different from every other company? Opportunities to create new, unique products are endless.

The entrepreneur in us sees opportunities everywhere we look, but many people see only problems everywhere they look. The entrepreneur in us is more concerned with discriminating between opportunities than he or she is with failing to see the opportunities. ~Michael Gerber

Basic Affiliate Marketing Tips

Affiliate marketing? People look at you quizzically when you tell them that is what you do to make money. Most people have no idea of what affiliate marketing is. They just can’t wrap their minds around the idea even when you explain it to them.

Most will ask how they would start affiliate marketing and how they would choose a product to promote?  This is a common question that has an easy answer. Research your desired niche products and see what kind of demand is there. Use the Google keyword tool to choose a niche that has a lot of monthly searches – over 40,000 searches a month is good enough to get started. Make sure you have enough interest in providing your customers with as much helpful information as you can. If you have no interest, you can still promote the products, it just won’t be as fun.

Next, you will need to apply to become an affiliate through an affiliate marketing company. There are several major affiliate companies that are very highly recommended. One is Clickbank, which offers thousands of information products that people can download after purchase. Some of these products are software products that have a recurring charge and hence brings you a monthly payment without getting a new customer. Other products are solutions to various health problems. Some will teach you to learn a new skill. Some will actually tell you what the best selling products are.

A second company to check out is Google Affiliate Network. Google has combined their affiliate network payment schedule with their Adsense payments. So if you are already getting money from Adsense this is a good fit for you.

Google has thousands of merchants. When you log in to their site, they’ll give you statistics that are important to understand. There is a figure called EPC – and this means earnings per click. There is a 3 month EPC and a 7 day EPC. You’ll see that the higher the numbers, the better chances you have of selling their products. They list these statistics for each merchant. They also show you the merchant’s payout rank. So you’ll be able to see which merchants are paying the most to affiliates. Choose your merchants wisely with help from these statistics.

A third company to check out is Shareasale. They have hundreds of merchants with thousands of products. They will deposit your earnings directly to your checking account on the same day every month. Shareasale is run by Brian Littleton, who is experienced in every aspect of ecommerce. Shareasale has many merchants to choose from and they provide easy ways to make an web page that will display products on your site. They also have some video selling options available.

Affiliate marketing is challenging, but worth all the effort you put into it. You can be your own boss and set your own working hours. Be warned though, you’ll probably work twice as hard as you ever have worked. That’s what happens when you get to follow your passions. It hardly seems like work.

Create a Business Plan

A business plan is a formal statement written when a person or a team in an organization wants to reach a goal and it states what your ambitions are for the company in the future. It is possible to hire a professional to do the business plan or you can write it all yourself. Describe what your business is about right now and what you want it to become in the future. All business owners have visions and ideas about their businesses. Creating a business plan will make those dreams become more concrete.

Some things that are essential to be included in your business plan:

Your business – Your business name, the business address, phone number, email address, and website name with the URL. Don’t forget to write your name as the owner and list other owners if there are any.

Business description – State here how you came up with the idea of creating your business. Describe each section of your business. Write a summary about your business and make it interesting so as to get the attention of prospective investors. You can site reasons why you need the money for your business. Mention your competitors as well. You can list supplies you use for your business and what you do on a daily basis.

Products or services offered – Be specific in writing how your business operates. Explain how you market your products or services.

Personnel – Who are the people working for you and how many employees are there? What are their roles and responsibilities in the company. The same thing applies if you are the only person running your business. State your role and how you run your business.

Your plan – If you want the financial aid of a lender or are planning to apply for a loan from the Small Business Administration, keep in mind that a business plan is required to acquire the financing. Your business plan is crucial for the success of your business.

Financial Data – Write down how much money you want to borrow for your business and how are you going to spend the money. An explanation of the expected profit and loss should be included. Also document how much money you earn monthly and your personal financial statement. Include your expected revenue in your business. Attach some supporting documents that you think will be helpful to the success of your business plan. For the investors, this data is the most important part of the business plan.

A business plan is the map of your journey to success. Coming up with a good business plan is not easily done overnight. It is a task that needs effort and time on your part. Some business owners neglect preparing a business plan until the night before their meeting with the bank. You can guess the results of those actions.

Be creative but make a realistic business plan. If you haven’t written one yet, now is the time to start.

Ebay’s Largest Store Owner

Have you ever wondered who owns the biggest ebay store? The powerseller, Buy, has 867,112 successful transactions and is listed on eBay as the largest store there. Upon further research through the help of Google Maps, you can see that the address listed for this seller is in California and is located in the buy.com building.

The powerseller, Buy,  is actually a  leading e-commerce company that has been in business over 10 years and has over 11 million customers.

They carry millions of products in categories ranging from sporting goods, computer hardware and software, cellular, electronics, movies, music, books and more.

At their website, they even list their most searched for items: 16GB Flash Drive, 1tB external hard drive, 32gb flash drive, Cordless phone, Ipod touch, Micro SD Card, USB flash drive, cordless phones, external hard drive, iphone, iphone 3g,iphone 3gs, ipod classic, ipod nano, micro sd,  microsd, netbook, netbooks, nintendo ds, ps3 refurbished,  sansa sd card, sdhc, slingbox, webcam, wii, wireless router,zune, zune hd.

The www.buy.com website is ranked by Alexa.com, a web monitoring site, as number 238 in the United States. The lowest numbers indicate the most popular sites. There are some bad reviews about this site on Alexa, but eBay seems to have nothing but positive feedback for them. Apparently their customer service is outsourced to India which causes problems for United States customers.

Buy.com has been listed by Internet Retailer as one of the top 100 retailers on the internet. Apparently the top 100 retailers are responsible for 55.3% of retail web sales.

Amazon.com is the leading retailer on the net with $19.2 billion dollars in sales. Internet retail selling is here to stay. People are becoming more and more comfortable ordering online. How comfortable are you with online ordering?

View Buy’s Ebay Listings

10 Tips For Making Money on Craigslist

By now you have probably heard of one of the nets’ most dominant classified ad websites; Craigslist. It makes no difference whether you are purchasing goods or selling goods, Craigslist is vital for any entrepreneur looking to make good money. First before you choose to surf the net and make money on Craigslist, you need to understand that there are a few critical guidelines to follow to help you become successful.

Why? If you don’t have the proper knowledge about Craigslist rules you might be blacklisted or banned. What am I going to share with you are the things you must know in order to learn how to make money on Craigslist and to use it in the right way.

Step 1 – Categories

You must advertise or sell items in the correct category. In case you don’t know, items posted on Craigslist are easily sorted by search engines and people surfing the net can view your listings when they are placed in the proper category.

Step 2 – Headlines

Create attractive headlines. This will be the main appeal of your ad and this will be the first thing that will attract the attention of your buyers. Write attention grabbing words and list a reasonable price for the items you are selling.

Step 3 – Use Photos

Post pictures. Listings that have pictures are easily getting noticed. Add as many pictures as possible to give the buyer a good understanding of what you have for sale. Pictures are worth 1000 words.

Step 4 – Respond Promptly

Don’t procrastinate your responses to inquiries. Respond to your inquiries as soon as possible. Remember that all inquiries are from potential buyers. Lastly be sure to follow up with your customers so that you can sell quickly.

Step 5 – Don’t Duplicate

Please don’t duplicate your ad. Craigslist can easily notice the same ad being posted multiple times and might consider it as a spam. You can be blacklisted permanently if you don’t stick with the guidelines.

Step 6 – Get Notified

Stay current with the new listing information you are interested in by using software such as AdNotifier.com. This program sends you automatic updates and messages every time a new ad is advertised in your category.

Step 7 – Resell Products

Purchase low cost items and resell them. This is so big since the resale industry is fast growing. If you have the skill for buying goods and reselling them at reasonable prices then Craigslist is a good match for your needs to start a business.

Step 8 – Use Links

You may create links in your ads. Like perhaps a link at eBay or your personal website easier to create access to your item. This will increase your chances for additional sales and possible upgrades.

Step 9 – Use HTML

Maximize the use of HTML in your ad to direct buyers to your link. This will help the buyer to get additional information about your products and services. Craigslist uses basic HTML which is not too difficult and can be learned at w3schools.com.

Step 10 – Use RSS Feeds

Use RSS feeds to stay current. When you find the search results that you are most interested in, scroll to the bottom of the page and in the right corner you will see the words RSS. Just click on that and you will get the link that you can bookmark to easily see what is current on that search. The nice thing about this is that you can see all of the ads in that category without opening up individual links.

Spend some time learning how Craigslist works. This means you’ll want to investigate what is selling in different parts of the world. Read other people’s ads and get some ideas of what you might want to do.

Of course nothing is easy at first. You need a lot of patience and hard work for your business you grow. I hope that these guidelines will help you with your money making endeavors.

Here are some good articles about Craigslist that you might enjoy.

• Interview with Craig Newmark, Founder Craigslist – Craig Newmark talks to us live at the Inman Real Estate Connect conference in NYC about what’s up with Craigslist these days. Craig discusses why they started charging for rental ads in New York, how he fights spam listings and what his …
• Craigslist Vs eBay | I’ve Paid For This Twice Already… – I had a comment last week on one of my older posts about selling items on Craigslist asking me what I thought about Craigslist and …
• How to use Postlets to Improve Your Craigslist Posts – There are quite a few features that Postlets offers, some fee-based and some free. com does most of the work for you. However, in relation to my previous post, I’ll also show you how you can create the illusion of an embeded YouTube property video.
• Save Money on the Web – I’ve mentioned before that I’m a software engineer living in Silicon Valley. Such an occupation forces you to stay alert with all the technology advantages in.
• Subtraction.com: Our Craigslist – The cover story for the September 2009 issue of Wired takes a look at the current state of Craigslist and the challenges it faces as it continues to evolve. In a sidebar, the magazine’s amazing art director Scott Dadich invited several …

Incentives Increase Profits

During this staggering economy, businesses are brainstorming for ideas that will result in sales. They are looking for ways that will help their business grow instead of head in the direction of failure. A business idea to help head in the path of success is to offer incentives to your current clients or incentives to lure new ones in. These ideas that will help increase your profits include offering coupons, referral rewards and points to use toward future purchases.

The first way you can encourage consumers to spend more within your company is to offer coupons. Buyers are looking for the best deals they can spend their money on. Coupons can be distributed to current clients through an email and can be used to draw people in to make purchases. A great way to promote these coupons to entice people to spend is to advertise them through means of social networks. Posting a link to your website with a coupon code offers exclusivity to those who are part of that network. This also drives traffic to your website which is generally good for brand exposure and profit.

Another inexpensive practice is to allow your current consumers to assist with your company’s marketing with referral rewards. An award of $10 for any person someone refers who spends $50 or more can result in high profits. This will persuade your current shoppers to outsource to their networks to build these referral rewards so they can receive the discount off their next purchase. This keeps the current consumer spending their money as well as the people who they have told your business about.

Handing out a compensation of points to a buyer makes them feel like they are getting a deal for what they have purchased. Different point levels for store discounts will encourage clients to purchase more to gain the excitement of working towards something that will be discounted. This also gives them the feeling of reassurance that their money is being well spent. Just think of popular points programs like Air Miles; many people will shop where they know these are offered.

These three types of incentives are inexpensive ways to get the buyers of today to start and continue spending money with your company. They will also help you stay competitive, while running a successful online business.

Article Source: By Karl Kleimeyer

Karl Kleimeyer is a business coach and mentor that assists serious entrepreneurs in building a profitable online business with multiple incomes streams. Karl and his team have assisted hundreds of people in generating profits that exceed $250K or more in their first year. For more information and to contact Karl, visit: http://ForeverWealthNHealthCreation.com

Zoobie Pets Sales Over One Million Dollars

Reed Smoot and his brother JC had a great money making idea that led to creating a line of products called Zoobie Pets that are sold in more than 30 different countries and over 1,000 stores. These brothers noticed that the toddlers in their family liked to carry blankets and pillows with them everywhere they went and so they used that idea to create cute fuzzy zoo animals that each has a blanket inside of it. So toddlers can carry a cute animal toy that is also a pillow and blanket.

Reed, 29, and JC, 26, of Provo, Utah, started the company with Ryan Treft, 26.  They became extremely successful entrepreneurs. The first year of sales for their Zoobie Pets reaped over one million dollars in revenues. Who would know that catering to the toddler community could be so lucrative.

What made them successful?

1. They had a clever product that was unique and appealing.
2. They attended a Toy trade show in 2007 and received orders from over 100 stores as well as signing up several international distributors.
3. They limited their sales to high-end stores like FAO Schwartz and Harrods.
4. They only allowed purchases in container loads so that the distribution system was controlled.
5. They adhered to safety rules in manufacturing their products
6. Reid Smoot actually moved to Shanghai, China to oversee manufacturing of their toys.

These Zoobie Pets sold well last year and are predicted to be very popular Christmas presents for 2008. What a great money making idea by some very young entrepreneurs.

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