Product Sourcing News   

Getting Started Selling Online

By: Colette Marshall
President, WorldwideBrands.com

When you're starting an EBiz, you're starting a business. It's not a hobby. If you want to actually make money in your ebiz, you need to treat it as what it is; a real, live business that can and will support you and your family if you do it right. We know there's a tremendous amount of information to sort through online. For our Worldwide Brands members, we created a Getting Started Checklist (available in the member center) that you can follow to help guide you through the online business process. But even with all the checklists and guide books available, I'm sure you still have many questions. So we've decided to take the checklist one step further, we're using it as a basis for a free webinar series to help answer your questions about getting started selling online.

One newsletter article is not enough to cover each step, so for the next few weeks our newsletter articles are going to be about the different steps of your business, and then we're going to follow it up with a free webinar where you can come and ask your questions about that topic.

I'm kicking of the webinar series tomorrow night with a webinar for beginners about deciding whether an online business is right for you. Here are the details:
WEBINAR #1: Getting Started Selling Online

Is it worth my time? How much will starting this type of business cost? How do I know what to sell? How do I know where to sell? The list of questions running through your mind is probably a lot longer than this, but it's a start. When most entrepreneurs first approach starting an online business, normally 2 things occur: 1) The excitement is very high and they have all these zany ideas and believe that they can have overnight success 2) They quickly realize that there's a few steps in the process that they weren't aware of, and they feel like they've hit a brick wall but are really, really eager to make it work.

That energy is great, and if you can relate to that description, then don't worry - you're not alone. The key to someone who succeeds running an online business is someone who looks at that brick wall and sees that's it's not too big and with one foothold at a time you can scale right over it. It's the people who try to find another way over the wall or try to climb too fast that end up falling off the wall and hurting themselves.

In tomorrow's webinar (Thursday, July 19th, 9 PM EST) I'm going to discuss and answer those questions that are going to help you decide if starting an online business is right for you and what some of the key elements are that you need to be aware of.

Join me and Ask Your Questions - Register for the Webinar Here: www.sourcingforindependence.com

Then our 2nd Webinar of the series:
WEBINAR #2: Get legal to Source It (Step 1 to your success)

Creating a real, legitimate business is the first step any entrepreneur must take. This is simpler than you think and does not have to be overcomplicated. But making that decision of whether to be a LLC or Sole Proprietor or one of the other choices can feel overwhelming. Your choice will impact your taxes and how you work with wholesale suppliers as you grow your business. We're even going to discuss how an international retailer can establish themselves in the USA.

Here's what I recommend when you're facing this decision:

1) Always talk to your accountant about what the best options are for you. Everyone's personal finances are unique and creating a business can often help your finances, but it depends on how it's set up.

2) Make a list of the questions you have and ask others what their experiences have been. You can learn a lot from other's experiences but you will still need to decide what's best for you and your new business. The Worldwide Brands Forum is a great place to ask those questions if you are a member.

We've invited industry expert, Deborah Sweeney, General Manager at MyCorporation.com, an INTUIT company to a free webinar on Monday, July 13th at 9 PM EST for you to ask your questions related to setting up a business correctly. She's going to share a decision tree to help you make the right choices on how to GET LEGAL.

Register for the Free Webinar Here: www.sourcingforindependence.com

Hope to see you there!

To register for all the webinars in the series, click on this button and select the register buttons for the webinars that you are interested in: