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jpstephens
09-20-2007, 04:36 AM
So I finally did it, I started my muse.

First thing I did was log onto terapeak.com and purchased the subscription so I could test not only how a product was doing on ebay but how another seller was doing and what their daily revenue/weekly revenue/monthly revenue was.

So I decided to sell Pro Audio Equipment.....First thing I did was come up with the name Eight Fold Trading. I came up with the name Eight Fold Trading after the Eight Fold Path in buddhism which is a path to follow to reach nirvana. I thought it was effective because this muse is my path, my eight fold.

So the next thing I did was register the company and start calling distributors with my tax-id #. I found a guy who sells a lot of stuff and would drop ship for me. He forwarded me the price guides with over 2000 products and here we are.

I have hired on elance.com a web developer who for $590 dollars is making me a logo, stationary(letterhead, business cards, envelopes),eBay Template, Item Listing Template. Within 20 days i'll have that all completed.

I currently have a bid open for a data entry specialist who can take my pdf's and find 2 high quality images, watermark my logo onto them, and create a listing on the template my graphic artist provides. I am getting bids at .20 - .40 per listing. So for 1500 products we are talking 300-600 dollars for data entry.

The goal is to open the store with 1500 products. Other people such as brianf (ebay handle) makes a monthly revenue of 105,000 selling similiar products.

To Automate, my goal is hire a virtual assistant who will do all the forwarding of invoices. Once the invoice is forwarded they will handle customer relations by sending an email to customer informing them their package is being prepared and mailed. It will also remind them to leave feedback for me. Weekly they will provide me with sales reports. The VA will also weekly transfer money out of the paypal account and into my WaMu account. Once this is handled they will then record the sale in quickbooks. I found a VA who can handle all his full time for $750.'

So there you have it, my muse, my status, my dreams. My dreamline tells me I need $760 per day to live my dream life. Let's hope it comes true.

Feedback is encouragd.

coollikeme
09-20-2007, 05:01 AM
a good plan good luck.

laniers
09-20-2007, 01:31 PM
Yours has to be the most complete plan I've seen posted her. terapeak.com looks interesting, you might also want to take a trial of sellathon.com which also gives really deep analytics of ebay. The only thing you didn't mention that I would like to see is for you to test the waters with a few auctions on ebay before you invest all the money in a site. Keep us posted

jpstephens
09-20-2007, 01:42 PM
Yea I could have done a few testings, but the way I looked at it, with terapeak you can look up individual products and see their history and how they sell and their avg price.

So the way I saw it, if my ad's match if not exceed the quality that is currently out there, i should have no problem. The goal is once this starts to get some SEO done so my products are all listed on Google Product Search and other shopping search engines.

Then I want to expand to a Yahoo store....

Tomorrow is the day I get the logos, should be exciting the firm thenetmencorp does pretty good work for great prices, i Highly recommend.

laniers
09-20-2007, 01:53 PM
Check out www.thirtydaychallenge.com for great info on SEO. Developing trust and fielding customer questions might be your biggest issue with these products. Any thoughts on dealing with these?

jpstephens
09-20-2007, 01:59 PM
I am not sure what you mean, they are brand name products that every studio uses. If your question is how will the company get positive feedback to start? I will have my team of VA's emailing the customer asking them to leave positive feedback. We are also going to be leaving them positive feedback if they are good hoping they promote us.

If this doesnt answer the question, please rephrase it?

Thanks

final_id
09-20-2007, 02:12 PM
$760 PER DAY???

Wow, I don't think I could figure out how to spend all of that. My dream life requires about $1 per day most days, and an extra $2000 per month for fixed expenses, so I total that up to $2100 a month (after taxes). You're more in the $23,000 a month range: more than ten times what I worked out for me. What gives? Is your dreamline "living like a sheikh with a harem of thirty servants and concubines on a private island"?

jpstephens
09-20-2007, 02:40 PM
hahaha i knew id get that, i could probably make half and be set.

House - 3500 per month/166.67 daily/42,000 yearly
Car - 500 monthly/6000 yearly/16.67 daily
Boat - 1000 monthly/12k yearly/33.33 daily
4 really nice dinners out per month - 400 monthly/4800 yearly/13.33 daily
Food Shopping - 300 monthly/3600 yearly/10 dollars daily
Clothes - 300 monthly/3600 yearly/10 daily
traveling - 1333 monthly/16k yearly/44 dollars daily
Savings accounts - 1250 monthly/15k yearly/41.67 daily
IRA account - 333.33 monthly/4k yearly/11.11 daily
Car Insurance - 252 monthly/3024.00 yearly/8.40 daily
Cell Phone - 100 monthly/1200 yearly/3.33 daily
Spending Cash - 4000 monthly/48,000 yearly/133.33 daily
Healthcare - 1500 monthly/18k yearly/50 dollars a day
Stock portfolio - 1000 monthly - 12k yearly - 33.33 daily

This puts me at 16k a month, 189k a year and 525 dollars a day.

This is a little different i made some revisions....sure there are overages and overlapping expenses like spending cash, but hey its my dream! i figure if i make 30 dollars a product id have to sell close to 20 products a day to get happy with my dream....

We'll see

laniers
09-20-2007, 04:14 PM
Check out www.thirtydaychallenge.com for great info on SEO. Developing trust and fielding customer questions might be your biggest issue with these products. Any thoughts on dealing with these?

What I meant was developing trust in your company, not the brands. In other words why should they buy from you? As Tim stated products over $200 are going to mean answering a ton of questions from potential customers before they actually buy.

jpstephens
09-20-2007, 04:25 PM
Well like any small startup thats always a fear. But i have full confidence that we will provide a comforting look and feel through graphic designers that will entice the person to buy. Also through eBay we can build feedback fast enough that we become a legitimate vendor in their eyes.

As long as the price is right....

clanshrapnel
03-12-2008, 03:17 AM
Well like any small startup thats always a fear. But i have full confidence that we will provide a comforting look and feel through graphic designers that will entice the person to buy. Also through eBay we can build feedback fast enough that we become a legitimate vendor in their eyes.

As long as the price is right....

JPSTEPHENS: Your post here was one of the most specific and more ambitious posts. I'm very curious to know how things panned out, as I incidentally am following a similar path.

I'm first testing the dropshipping of items via EBAY (after doing the proper marketing research via 30DC, of course), and if all goes well, I'll setup a YAHOO store, just as you.

Please let us know! I hope for the best.

mrhead
03-12-2008, 03:22 AM
It looks like this muse has been started on a new thread here: http://fourhourworkweek.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=1156&page=2

clanshrapnel
03-12-2008, 03:48 AM
Awesome, thanks Mr. Head.

I've also read several of your postings. They are inspirational. Hope all is well with your muse, too!