Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Back to business

Mark's back from the trade shows and it looks like I'll get some time next week to focus back on website and marketing instead of strictly customer service. It'll be nice to be back to what I enjoy. The search for a perfect, low-cost solution to replace our present shopping cart goes on - but not until next week. A weekend visiting our kids is next on the agenda. Until then, keep focused!

Jeff

A day of employment frustration

While the owner of the etched home decor company I handle website and marketing for is driving back from trade shows out East, I was holding down the fort at the office. I look forward to getting back to focusing more on enhancing sales on the site than manning the phones.

I know, starting a business is not exactly a direction that affords peace and thoughtful comtemplation. I'm sure that succeeding at business will bring with it as much disruption of my concentration as I experienced today. But at least it will call on me to make decisions where I have the final responsibility instead of trying to anticipate what decisions Mark, the owner, would want made in the many areas where the broad scope of his business leaves a lot of gaps in established practice.

Another step today, though. Coming home, I got a couple of test e-Bay listings up of products I think will sell. Of course my research also suggested some totally different directions to try, but I'll have to restrain myself on those.

If there's one thing I've learned from planning a business, it's that it's way too easy to dash off into step 11 before you really finish step 1. So many possibilities! So many options!

It all comes down to fear of loss. It's the key to all marketing, recognizing how how to tap into the customer's fear of losing an opportunity that is at the root of the decision to buy.

But fear of loss is a two-way street. It's something the marketer has, too. Chasing every opportunity only destroys focus, and focus is what enables those little steps and little steps and little steps that build into success.

Enough for tonight. There's still a couple of tasks to complete.

May your focus be clear, my friend.

Jeff

The die is cast

The time has come to stop fooling around, and with the enthusiastic support of a wonderful wife (at least I'll take her declaration of, "C'mon, Jeff, we really need you to get this business going," as being enthusiastic support), she and I have taken the step of moving our long-discussed e-commerce venture into reality. We're getting set up so far with three manufacturers whose products our still in development www.hearts-and-roses.com website will carry. That'll make for a modest but manageable start.

This weblog will record the steps we take in making our dream of running our own website gift shop a reality. Join us in our adventure. I promise you as accurate of a view as I can give not only of our successes, but also of the obstacles we face, including dealing with the irrational fears that make it so easy to let our dreams get away from us.

Contacting the manufacturers whose products we want to sell was, strangely, a source of anxiety. Fear of rejection--"what if they don't want to do business with us while our gift website is still in the development?"

Duh! They want to sell their products. We're fully set up as a legitimate business that wants to sell their product. Sounds like the neurotic nonsense of the TV detective Monk. But those kind of foolish fears are where so many dreams die. I feel a sense of accomplishment just making that step.

Repeat after me. Keep taking little steps. Keep taking little steps. Keep taking...

Expect some philosophizing along the way about the psychological factors in running (or choosing never to do anything more than dream about running) a business. With a background that follows a strange path through being an actor, a pastor, a screenwriter (nope, I never sold any, sorry to say), as well as a writer, web design and web marketer, I tend to see life through an odd combination of angles that I just don't seem able to keep to myself. Take that as a warning or an invitation.

Maybe you'll find my insights useful in starting your own business. Maybe you'll just get a chuckle out of my fears and phobias. But I hope you find this peek into one family's venture into e-commerce a worthwhile read.
Jeff