Recent Business Updates

Sorry it's been awhile since I last posted on my blog, but things have been starting to shape up. I now get orders on a daily basis. While short of the kind of sales and numbers I'm used to before, it's nonetheless a positive development in the right direction.

Charms - We plan to launch a new program for our customers sometime before November 1st (if not sooner). When this happens, we will not only be providing our customers with a community forum, but also provide special benefits and other perks for our member-customers. We also plan to provide our own exclusive charm styles and provide a better and wider selection to choose from.

Pet items - We will be slowly introducing and expanding our selection of pet products.

Accessories - It's been selling, but not quite at the pace we're hoping for. Again, it's still a good business.

For the most part, I don't want to get into any specific details because they are all in development at this point. I've been quite busy lately with buying and shipping products and working online on the listings so that our products are made available.

Been also advertising on Google Adwords, Yahoo! Search Marketing, and will be exploring other advertising channels very soon.

Partnerships... We might also be entering into a partnership with some individuals to help grow our business. Sorry things are kind of vague, but I will be disclosing more information as we progress.

Also... link to our most recent webstore at:

SuperStarBrand

A (Business) Proposal

Well... for the many people out there wondering what's my motive for actively promoting my eBay store and basically starting the whole business... I have a significant other who has been waiting for over ten years - yes, 10 freakin' years, for me to propose to her. For those wondering about the business itself and who is it run by; I do most of the hard work, brainstorming, researching, listing, and she helps design and get products while I ship them and take care of all the forms, paperwork, marketing, and such. I know, it gets confusing.

Either way, I expressed and told her that I would be devoting all my energy towards making the business work. Another thing... she doesn't like the whole idea of eBay being a business. I don't disagree. But it's a start. I need at least ONE good thing going before I set up another online store with its unique domain name, set up shops on other websites, expand to a physical location and have a retail outlet, speak with factories to produce exclusive products and find distributors, and more.

Sure, I can get an office job, sales job, or any other position that assures a stable income. But my pursuit, ambition, aspiration... has always been about business. If you ask why I waited so long, I didn't. I guess you can say that sometimes you lose track of your target. I did. I had many, many opportunities... instead of trying to branch out and start on my own, I always waited to see if anyone is willing to partner up with me. You have to understand that business takes capital.. which means, money. And you need that kind of investment to get things started... otherwise, buyers would hate you and harass you if you don't ship their orders on time.

I ran into a few production issues, had suppliers that were unstable (they keep increasing the prices after they found out how well I sold them; truth is, my strategy had most oftentimes follow that of trying to make more with less. I mean, I want to be friendly with customers, I want to offer them the best deals so that they would return to my store for future purchases. I don't ask to make a lot. In fact, I still haven't and have never made a lot. Just trying to get by for now.

So you get the idea. I have about one more year to prove myself before she moves on. I told her this year I would try my hardest and I will dedicate 365 days of the entire year doing so. That means, I don't go out for leisure, I don't spent time watching TV or doing anything else besides business. I work my ass off trying my best to see what I can come up with.

Yea, I feel bad that I didn't discover eBay long ago or had the connections I do now for suppliers and at competitive prices. I feel had that I didn't constantly pursue different ways to make money and for awhile I was getting too used to running only one business.

Now, I have to start over. There are a number of issues that makes it too detailed and long for me to explain. I just hope this endeavor goes as planned. Each passing year adds to the both of our ages and she wished she had kids by now. I wish I started a family too. I'm ready to settle down.

But how do you tell other people that. Besides a blog, no one knows why I am slashing my prices that leaves only a thin margin for income. Nobody knows what's my motive and what I hope to achieve with my business. Maybe I can put that in the "About Me" page. I think I probably should. At this point, you have to have some humility and take what you can get. If it takes exposing yourself to strangers about the truth.. how you are trying to make ends meet and fulfill your promise to your longtime girlfriend that one day (very soon) you will be able to marry and propose to her. She's not just anyone. She's the love of my life even before high school. I owe her a lot and I hope I can make up for lost time throughout the rest of my life. We've just gone through too much together... there's too much history... "water under the bridge"!

Have a good week!

Mp3 Accessories - Apple iPods, iPhones, Microsoft Zune, Creative Zen, and More!

Just a re-cap: I seriously started putting more effort and am actually working on my eBay store business. So far, we carry Italian charms and charm bracelets, mp3 and video game accessories, consumer electronics (such as dvd players, auto accessories, home theaters), computer parts and other accessories. I do indeed add new products each and every day. My intention is to offer more selection to my customers to hopefully find something they like and while they're at it.. maybe buy more. Things are still somewhat disorganized and not exactly how I imagined it. But give and take a few tweaks here and there and things should be running smoothly.

Meanwhile, I'm exploring new and very affordable items such as an mp4 audio/video player. Yes, they may be around and look similar to products from Apple. But at about $40-$50, compared to $200-$300 and more for an Apple iPod or Microsoft Zune, I would consider that a huge bargain.

In other news: I believe Harry Potter came out on Saturday midnight (or Friday?). Can you believe it? It's Sunday already and Monday is usually the busiest day for online retailers (with the weekends being the slowest).

I'm rather tired right now having stayed up so late last night and waking up really early this morning and only eating one meal today (I know, it's really bad).

Good night!

Awe... the Beauty of eBay Fees

If I had a choice, I would really like to avoid paying all these ridiculous fees that eBay charges. I mean... c'mon... you charge listing (insertion) fees AND final value fees (commission; tax) even after a sale has been made? Worst yet, even if I don't and can't make a sale after listing the item, I still get charged. On top of that, there are extra value added expenses if you want to have a photo attached with your listing in their gallery, miscellaneous charges for more than one product photo, and then some. Furthermore, if and when we collect payment through the monopoly payment service provider PayPal (which is also owned by eBay), there is an additional fee associated. Now, you can see why sometimes I get frustrated when certain buyers don't understand the somewhat moderate shipping costs. They expect to only pay postage.

Put it this way, if it wasn't because of the fact that there is such a large customer base, easy exposure, and simple setup... then eBay wouldn't stand out as one of my top choices to start listing my items for sale.

Anyhow, I'm now caught up with nearly over $150 in eBay fees with only $60 in sales revenue. Keep in mind that there are other costs to take into consideration: inventory/supplies, packaging materials, etc. I'm actually losing money. But I guess that's the part of business... being able to bear the risks and costs if the business fails. Please just remember not all businesses succeed. And those that do... just because someone has a business, doesn't mean they are filthy rich or living the lifestyle. I would say most earn just as much or a little more to be comfortable with where they're at. Business owners are just like regular people. It's just that they like the flexibility (in time/schedule and calling the shots and being their own absolute decision-maker). Also, they like the incentive where you can work harder and "try" to make more money. Such as myself, staying up long hours.

Late Night Hours

When it comes to a passion for business, sometimes you tend to forget about sleep. Here I am, more than 2 hours past midnight and I'm researching and trying to find out what new products to sell, how can I best market myself, and asking myself questions like: how come other sellers are doing much better than myself?

Call me crazy, but the past week has been like this for me. Some days, I only sleep for a mere 2-3 hours. There's no doubt in my mind that if you want to truly do well, you must put in the work and time to achieve the ends.

Moreover, I have more than 20 tabs on a single browser (or maybe two)... that I'm constantly switching between windows to look at other parts of the web (and other sites) trying to figure out what I should do next.

Well... there's a lot of things to take into consideration such as: researching the competition, hot new items search, free (yet simple) online publicity/marketing/advertising/etc. (such as this blog), among many other topics that comes to mind.

I wish I had a team or at least 1 or 2 other individuals to assist in my task, but part of the job of being a self-starter working with a low to almost no budget means that you just have to work that much harder. You must have the passion to drive you when nothing else will. Because obviously, the money isn't coming in yet and it won't be as easy as you wish.

Also, I was looking at the traffic reports and notice there was a substantial increase (over 100-200% increase from yesterday). I went from 1 sale on day one to 6 sales to 8 sales. While the orders are still quite minuscule, at least it's some progress and surely something that I must work on. Hence, that is why I'm staying up late at night trying to put things together, figure things out, and to see where I go from here.

See you all tomorrow!

Promoting Your Blog

I forgot to mention one of the major reasons for me to start a blog was to promote my business. Now that you know my agenda, I also thought it would be interesting to read a somewhat daily update and progress report... kinda like getting inside info on starting a web/online business. I just thought it'll be something kind of cool that you can read along the way... you know, like how someone details about their day-to-day activities, success and failure, expressing their frustration and satisfaction with having your own business and you get to come along for the ride by reading their blog and catching up on the news.

So now that I have my blog, I will focusing on ways to get my blog out there so that someone like you may read this (and maybe decide to purchase something from me in the future). I just finished submitting my blog to a few popular websites, such as Technorati.com as well as search engines.

My goal on ebay is to at least reach powerseller status in a matter of 4-6 months (the latest)... and hopefully with your help and a bunch of few select others... I may be able to achieve that goal. Who knows? I might end up failing, but at least that's an aspiration and I firmly believe everyone should have some type of goals in their life.

Ok.. that being said, besides the popular web sites like Technorati (and maybe Digg.com), there are only a few other options for free blog listing to gain "web publicity" besides forking out fees on other lesser-known sites that might end up just being a waste of money.

Thought I'll write this particular blog and post the following link button while I'm at it:



I'll be back shortly and writing more. No use having a blog with only 1 or 2 posts.

Italian Charms

Before opening up an eBay Store and selling these Italian charms and bracelets, I never knew they were so popular. It actually amazes me the astronomical prices that other retailers are charging for these cute collectible items. I guess when people are willing to pay for them despite how much they cost.. it's all fair game. But for me, I rather be reasonable and focus on volume selling and trying to reach out to as many people as I can... while making these charms and other jewelry accessories cheap and affordable enough where you can actually have fun making collecting charms a nice hobby without emptying your pocketbooks.

What surprises be furthermore is that my competitors are outselling me by a wide margin (I currently only get a few sales a day... hardly anything worth mentioning about) and I'm selling them for only $0.99 with $1.99 shipping for the first item while others are charging $1.99, $2.99, and up with similar or higher shipping costs. I guess it's tough to figure what people want these days and trying to get the kind of exposure you wish you had like the other powersellers on ebay.

Meanwhile, I'll test out different ways to attract people and maybe they'll figure out that my deals aren't pretty bad.

Oh... by the way... here's a link to my ebay store.

Also, if by chance you mention that you read my blog and decided to purchase from me... I will offer you some kind of additional discount in addition to whatever promotion I might have at the time.

Click here for my ebay Store!