Are you a new business? Hints and tips

How many ways do you offer your goods for sale?

It stands to reason that the more places you offer your goods for sale the more you should sell. Many of our customers sell via ebay and Amazon. But did you know that there are literally dozens of other websites where you can offer your goods?

If you favour auction sites then as well as ebay there are www.specialistauctions.com, www.ebid.net, www.wigix.com and www.cqout.com to name just a few

All these sites operate in the same sort of way as ebay but with slight differences so they may or may not suit your business more

There are also websites which are strong outside of the UK and are now developing here. For instance PriceMinister is the second biggest ecommerce site in France and has recently opened up a UK site (www.priceminister.co.uk). PriceMinister does not sell any of its own products with all products sold by individual and business sellers. Listing an item is free of charge but naturally there is a commission on sales. Not many crafty or baby items but get in there first!

There is also www.shoppingbank.co.uk

In its blurb it describes itself as “bringing together two hugely successful and dynamic internet concepts; online shopping and social networking, to introduce "Social shopping".

Effectively it is a fixed-price marketplace with the added attraction to consumers that it offers a cash back system. Its not the cheapest way of selling but can be very successful

For more information please see http://www.shoppingbank.com/sb/index/d/advertise/pn/1190155

Etsy

If you make your own products then Etsy is the most widely known market place. The home of all things beautiful and handmade it also has very low fees

Craft and home made items are not very well represented on ebay and Amazon and we would highly recommend that you try Etsy and its UK equivalents. Etsy is a bit USA biased but that will change over time. But in the meantime you can try the award winning www.misi.co.uk which was launched in Oct 2008 and www.coriandr.com

For more info please see http://www.etsy.com/how_selling_works.php http://misi.co.uk/about.php and http://www.coriandr.com/register

Finally there are websites which do all your marketing for you such as Not on the High St and Swanky Mansion, www.swankymansion.co.uk they advertise extensively in return for commission on each sale. Make sure you read the small print though as we know that Not on the High Street do have some restrictive clauses which you may not want to accept

Best Years are a soft toy wholesaler and we do not sell directly to customers just to independent and high street stores. For this reason we cannot recommend any of the websites above but we would welcome any feedback you may have on them

Raising your Profile

Drop Shipping.

We often get asked whether we will drop ship for online retailers but this is not something we are able to do

Drop shipping, for any who do not know, is where the retailer sells an item and then sends the order through to be fulfilled by the wholesaler.

The benefit to the retailer is that they do not have the risk or the cost of stock, and the benefit to the wholesaler is that their products are more visible to consumers as they are offered for sale by more retailers. However it is a very labour intensive way of selling goods. Products have to be hand picked and dispatched and then invoices raised for amounts typically below £10.

In order to be successful at drop shipping a wholesaler has to have dedicated resource and this is where the Catch 22 clause kicks in. The retailers who want a drop shipping service are usually small, or new, or both and looking for a way to build up a business whilst maximising cash flow. Their orders for their wholesalers are small and irregular

Drop shipping is lower margin than buying the product out right but suits start up businesses. More established retailers with larger turnovers do not normally want to give away the margin associated with drop shipping. But for the wholesaler this can mean dozens of small retailers with small turnovers which does not sit well with a business model based on shifting large quantities.

There are many wholesalers who specialise in drop shipping and who have been set up specifically to drop ship. Unfortunately Best Years are not one of them. However what we do have now is a partner, DCR Retail, who are geared up to service drop shipping requirements. This means that we are happy to say that we can now offer drop shipping. If you wish to offer drop shipping from your website then please email us, sales@bestyears.co.uk and we will sort everything out for you

Ebay

There are mixed opinions about Ebay retailers. Some wholesalers view them as discounters and will not deal with them and others feel that Ebay is the way forward and it would be foolish to ignore what is the future of retailing

At Best Years we sit somewhere in the middle

We are happy to work with people who sell primarily on Ebay but we also have a huge loyalty to our existing customers. High street retailers have rent, rates, heating, lighting and staff to pay for before they can even open their doors. Online retailers have huge costs for online advertising and website costs to be successful. Ebay sellers have to pay a large % of the purchase price to Ebay and Paypal in order to trade

However if you are selling on Ebay as a hobby rather than a business then the pleasure is in the sale and not the profit

So if you are starting a business by selling on Ebay we are happy to talk to you. But if we think that you are selling at unrealistic retail prices which undermine the value of our goods in the open market then we reserve the right not to supply you again

Please do email me on gaynor@bestyears.co.uk if you need any more clarification

Are you setting up a new business?

When we set up Best Years it was fun but a lot of hard work - heres some people who made life easier!

what ever business you are in it pays to know and understand the law surrounding you. whether it is the distance selling legislation or safety specifications Trading Standards know it and are more than happy to help. We couldn't have done it without them www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/

www.quickformations.co.uk After hours of form filling and hair tearing we found Quick Formations. For us they were fab!

www.a1-group.co.uk A bit more of a regional one, but if you really want to understand the numbers and systems behind your business A1 are there to help. They have been with us since the very beginning and we love them! While we plugging our business partners heres one for our website developers hardworking and honest!www.oxfordwebware.com

heres one that we have no personal experience of but who have been recommended to us www.startupslive.co.uk/index.htm

Lots of advice and net working opportunities

Heres a big secret - you can do lots of internet marketing yourself. We have found these sites useful, and hope they are good for you

check how many links you have to your site and to your competitiors here www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/default.htm

How many people click on the key words on your site or in your Google ad, try this inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/

We hope that these sites are useful for you. If you have any tips please let us know and we will include them on the site

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Marketing for Small Businesses

However fabulous and innovative your product, or brilliant your service is your business cannot thrive and grow unless you tell people about it.

Of all the skills a new business owner must acquire marketing must be among the first. This comes naturally to some people but is an effort for others, keep at it tho and you will reap the benefits

Perceived wisdom has it that there are 12 different ways in which you can market your company and you should be doing at least 7 of them if you are to grow your business. By using a combination of these methods you should "touch" your customers and potential customers at least once a month.

The 12 ways are as follows

Direct Mail - sending anything from brochures to letters to postcards to your customers

Email Capture - make every effort to get email addresses from everyone who you come in to contact with, whether they are suppliers, baby sitters or neighbours they are all potential customers!

Direct Sales - if you are a large company this means a sales team but in a smaller team it means making sure that everyone who comes in to contact with customer actively sells rather than just serves. this could be as simple as offering batteries or another add on product

Fairs and Shows - whether you are an internet or a bricks and mortar shop showing at fairs is a great way to increase your visibility and meet new customers. School Fairs are a cheap and effective way to grow your business, and Xmas offers many opportunities if you go looking for them

Conference Calls - if you offer a service then a conference call where you share tit bits of knowledge will increase your reputation and your reach in your chosen area at a very reasonable cost

Advertising - Be careful! There are many people who will offer you the chance to advertise but many will do you no good at all. If you do advertise make sure that you are never on the left hand page!

Telephone Marketing - Don't try to sell via the telephone or you risk irritating your potential customers, but most people are happy to answer a few simple questions which will allow you to plan promotions and perhaps give you topics for PR

Joint Ventures - Two heads are better than one. Why not get together with your neighbour and do a joint promotion for more effect, or if you offer baby blankets work with someone who has toddler toys to broaden your appeal

Mailing Lists - Make sure you test the results of any mailing by including an offer in the mail out or how will you know if people liked/noticed what you sent out?

PR - cheap and effective PR is a wonderful way to promote your business but it does take time

Internet Marketing - even if you are not an internet business you can still increase your business by promoting it on line.

Pay per Click - cheap and very effective

I hope this gives you some new ideas of how to promote your business. Not all of them will work for you but there will definitely be one or two which will make a big difference. Good Luck!