For Small Businesses and Entrepreneurs

1. Consultation, Huh…What?

Consult with someone before you do anything. Talk to a friend or colleague who has run an e-commerce business successfully before you actually “run” an e-commerce business. This can help you with every single point below. If you don’t have those type of connections, give your prospective e-commerce provider a call or Google someone.

2. Hobby vs. Business

“I love my hand-sewn stuffed elephant, all my friends love it, and so will everyone else. I should be able to make a lot of money in the first month with these things.”

Just because you love your hand-sewn stuffed elephant does not mean the other millions of shoppers will. You have to have some realistic expectations that “should” be based on either marketing data, industry data and / or experience. Read some industry related blogs, buy a few start-up books. Is it a niche you are filling, a rare item that people keep blogging about, or is it simply a hobby you are in love with?

Not to say that hobbies can’t work. They can. I have seen a few of them, but you have to treat them like a business. You have to wrap all this business stuff around it and it stops becoming a hobby. The fun is gone and now you must make money at it which can be heartbreaking.

3. Great Expectations

“I just opened my online store and I see hardly any sales. I need to start seeing some this week!”

I have received over 200 emails this year on this very subject. Just because you opened and configured your store does not mean people will suddenly start mobbing your site with orders. There are many pieces that need to be completed before that will happen. Also, if you are at the “I must see some sales this week” you are already in budget trouble which requires a different approach out of scope for this article.

4. Budgets..Huh?

Many times people don’t realize that after you buy your e-commerce service there are still lots of other costs. For most, e-commerce software (Volusion, Interspire, Pinnacle, Ochanoko, Shopify, Magento) you look at the price and say, “Hey that’s pretty good, I can afford that!”, but it’s not that simple. There is more if you want to succeed – human resources, your time, ad buying, various campaign expenditures, design, etc. All this must be considered. You have to plan for some serious expenditures in the first year unless you are on the 5-10 year plan or you sell something so fantastic that the NYtimes.com, Wired.com and Slashdot write it up and you have instant backlinks and traffic. I have been lucky enough to be a part of that once in my life (FontStruct.com). Only once! Everything else took money, budgets, proper positioning and a lot of hard work.

5. Lack of Marketing Knowledge

Ok, so you have spent days, weeks, or months importing your products, configuring variations, setting up mail, payment gateways, shipping and writing all your clever copy. You even have SEO friendly URLs. So where are all the sales?

I find time and time again that businesses spend so much energy building up the store (which you must do) but nothing in the way of marketing aside from the built in SEO. You have to start your marketing programs and run them in parallel with your other activities. Real programs! Well thought out programs (Affiliates, Backlinks, Newsletters, Cobranding, PR, etc.). You also need to read blogs, forums and sites on marketing if you are unfamiliar with it. You should have strategies, analytics, and market data all written and analyzed.

Sounds like work, doesn’t it? Well, It is.

6. Communication Breakdown

This happens at various levels and it happens all the time. There are whole departments dedicated to managing projects, dates and communication. They are usually labels “controllers”. What has amused me for years is that there is always a weakest link and most of the time it’s the owner. Don’t be embarrassed. Simply realize that your position or business is going to take a different level of communication. Pull your socks up and go for it. Here are the most entertaining points:

• Someone (maybe you) is averse to documenting things in an email.
• An entire marketing discussion is conducted on the phone with little or no follow-up.
• Certain emails are not circulated properly and people are left off the cc: (the virtual carbon copy).
• People scan and forward emails without reading them properly.
• Assumptions.

7. Roadmaps

They not only work in the car, but also keep you on course with your business. Use them. Only 10% of the people I have ever worked with have them. Even if you have a roadmap and you managed to memorize it, that does not mean everyone else has. Get everyone involved immediately. Let everyone know where you are going and how you will get there. What stops will you make? Who is involved? When will you get there? What are the milestones?!

8. The Decision Maker

A few times in my recent past, I had “non-technical” CEOs / owners / presidents making “technical” decisions.

“I have sold these products from my retail store for years , I know what I am doing.”

Yes, you do. That knowledge is very valuable, but selling online requires another level of knowledge. What happens inside your store is tangible. You can react to each challenge in an organic, human way. You have this massive computer sitting on our shoulders and you know how to use it. Yes, you know what you are doing, however, when you sell online, you don’t have that same opportunity. You must rely on another set of skills. Either employ someone or listen to the current staff.

You can still command the e-ship captain, but listen to the crew. Consult with them. You may learn something.

9. Reading is “Fun”damental

It’s that simple. In the last 12 companies I have worked with, most of the employees “sucked” at reading. Either documentation was not read properly, research was not done at all, or emails were not read thoroughly. This affects everything and touches on the Communication Breakdown from above.

10. Geeky Tenacity

A handful of successful e-commerce businesses that I was involved in either had someone or a small team of people who had this kind of geeky tenacity about them. The e-commerce site was a puzzle, a game, a sport of sorts. They dreamed about it, shivered when they solved technical problems, were excited about testing out marketing theories, showed up at every meeting, had something to say about everything; they lived it in a geeky sort of way. You need these people around you. If you plan on taking your business to a visibly successful level online, employ these people. They are an integral part of your ship.

In Conclusion,

Consult with people, get real, get financed, read, communicate, and plan.