WIN Meeting 6.28.06

2:10

Announcements:

Refer to meeting agenda for specific dates.

Discover U, eBay 101 & 102 classes coming up in July
Seattle Gift show – Janelle will be speaking
Digital Life – Janelle will be in NYC to also speak for Ladies Who Launch
July 25: Next WIN meeting, homework, catch up, Annette’s baby shower

New Introductions:

Becky Kauffman, working in opera business for past 10 years, sells historic undergarments for film/theatre. www.periodcorsets.com. They recently sent corsets to Madonna and Sarah Furgeson. She sources items and does the marketing for her company. She attended the meeting because she recently came into possession of an elderly neighbor’s belongings. Her home was packed to the ceiling with stuff. She wants to create a store and put it up on eBay. 

Candy Kroger, sells clothes full time on eBay. She has a background in retail via Nordies and JC Penney’s and used to own a bridal and consignment store. Wants to be part of a supportive group.

Resource page: www.janelleelms.com/ebay top 6 tips for marketing when opening a store.

WIN member, Susan, is offering financial advising and intends to continue to sell on eBay. Her email is susan.mowrey@lfg.com. 

WIN member, Laura, is on the East coast for the summer. You can reach her at simplehomeworks@msn.com. We masterminded her business last month and will turn in our mastermind sheets/suggestions to her at this meeting.

Laura asked if she should close her store while she’s away for the summer. Janelle stressed not to shut your store down if you go on vacation. You will probably lose your store name. You can notify clients you’re on vacation. Go to manage my store and click vacation hold. If you’re not available for a few days, see if a neighbor or family member can manage your store while you’re out. Better yet, use an assistant.

WIN member, Cindy, created EZ Auction Photography CD ($19.95) http://www.ezauctionphotography.com/ about how to shoot quality photos for your listings. She’s created a great postcard and brochure to accompany the CD. She’s using marketing ideas outside of the eBay world to promote this product. For instance, she snail mailed a postcard to her client list!

Janelle Tip: When you find great products and want to promote them speak to the company. See if they have an affiliate program so that you get paid for promoting their product. eBay will pay you $20+ for each person that you refer to the site. Find ways to incorporate affiliate programs in your business. In the next couple months, we’ll talk about affiliate programs. This is a great way to make passive income.

WIN member, Carol, gets kudos for her fabulous new website, www.wanderingcreekantiques.com, and because she has a new icon. The new icon was just released by eBay: the top 5000 reviewer on eBay! It not only looks cool but gives Carol additional credibility. When you click, you go to her reviews and guides. She only has 3 guides up. Carol turned custom pages into reviews and guides. Now it makes her look impressive in the eBay community. 

You have 5-10 custom pages in your eBay store. Create 1 thing and use it for a whole bunch of different things: custom pages, reviews and guides, articles, product. You could write about the care and cleaning of antique jewelry on a custom page and go on to create a review or guide. Google is already picking up Carol’s guides with all of her store info. This is all free except for the time it took her to post the information. We want to use them so Google spiders pick them up. SEO works for you. New icon looks great. Now Carol looks GREAT!

Next month the Powerseller’s will be working on SEO. Recommend Catherine Seda’s Search Engine Advertising (available at www.janelleelms.com/ebay).

Quotes - these are a reality check. The desire to be successful is so strong in our culture that people seem to be looking for a shortcut so they stop protecting themselves and taking responsibility. 

The first quote is about being selfish. We’ll never be successful entrepreneurs if we allow other people take responsibility for our success. Everyone has a chance to be a great success on eBay. Make sure that you aren’t relying on others to take you to the top. It’s your business, you do it! 

We previously talked about post-it notes, labels that get stuck to us throughout our lives. The only thing that matters is what you think…not what others think. Successful entrepreneurs toss off their post it notes and don’t take no for an answer. Reading is crucial to being an entrepreneur. Take responsibility: there’s good selfish and bad selfish, good envy and bad envy. You have to learn how to be selfish about your business. Be protective of your business. Envy is watching someone else do something really good and taking that and using it positively in your business. Use the envy for good before it turns bad. Especially as women, we need to know that we can use these as good.

The second quote is to remember that being an entrepreneur is very hard. There isn’t a magic bullet or a shortcut to becoming wealthy. It’s a lot of hard work. This is another attribute of successful entrepreneurs. Don’t think that this is an easy road but the most satisfying path. You have a choice to make your life better or stay stuck. What you choose determines the kind of life that you lead. Keep these things in mind as you progress as entrepreneurs. 

If you want to be successful, you’re responsible for it. Not eBay, Janelle, PayPal, etc. WIN member, Mary Lou (http://marylouharrisdesigns.com) , worked incredibly hard at eBay live to protect her business. Mary Lou showed up with a hat and sweater covered in her jewelry. When other people were complaining about the long lines, Mary Lou took it as an opportunity to talk to other people about her business. She didn’t care what other people thought about her. Her approach and attitude promoted her business. 

Janelle is concerned that people have forgotten how to help others. She says the whole reason for running these free meetings is for us to pass on the help. We’re going to have a Retro Manners section with suggestions for good deeds that we might pass on to someone else. Let’s spread the infection of taking care of and helping each other. Let’s return to the kindness we all experienced after 9-11. A small thank you, kindness, or warm gesture makes a difference and naturally gets passed on.

At eBay Live, Troy from Period Papers (http://stores.ebay.com/Period-Paper) was on the Best in Stores panel. He said the secret to his success is to simply ‘be nice’. That gets you the most business. Be generous. Pass it on. 

Here are a few simple suggestions for passing along the good feeling: www.hallmark.com has free e-cards. They’re fun to send to people. You can also send email or hand written notes. Hit a thank you card sale. A Paper Source in Bell Square is having 75% off on their paper products. Automate your business; an assistant could write your notes. Follow up sales with a phone call to thank someone for their purchase and make sure they were happy with the transaction.

If you have ideas, email the group with your ideas or things that you do.


Marketing ideas for your business cards:

Include things like directions, appointment cards, photos of products on the back. Have an url and phone # on both sides of a postcard. You could include a list of things that you sell. Use 100% of your card – prime real estate. 
www.janelleelms.com/vistaprint for 250 free business cards!

Meeting Changes – beginning July:

In order to attend the meeting, every woman will present at the door, a completed Mastermind sheet for that month. One of the core objectives on the WIN meetings is to support each other’s businesses. We show respect for ourselves and each other by participating and bringing our ideas to the table.

Also, when women come in their business cards will go into a hat. Janelle will draw names to lead each section (including homework) from the outline. This will strengthen each woman’s time management, leadership and speaking skills. 

The Mastermind group is very important. A woman comes to the group with a business idea. It doesn’t have to be eBay. It can be a simple idea or something fully flushed out. They present their business idea or thought process with an outline. Then go over questions that we can answer here. We take home mastermind sheets and turn them into suggestions for that woman.

Constance (www.constancephoto.com) is the mastermind subject for this month. Constance has worked hard to bring her work to the table. She trusts that the group is there to help her business. The core purpose of masterminding is to help each other succeed. 

Constance passed around a product for her first business: Visual Inventory. She will go into homes and take a digital inventory of the homeowner’s possessions and document the record on a CD and in a booklet. She has the homeowner talk about features of the house which are also included on the CD. She wants to become an expert helping people going through insurance claim process. She’s working with SAFECO and getting info about how to process claims so she can help others. She is meeting with Seattle Police to help educate customers how to ID and protect their possessions. Constance is very excited about this idea. She’s working with appraisers and wants to have a list of resources to help people to certify their jewelry and collectibles. 

She owns www.visual-inventory.com domain. The newspaper will probably feature her in a story which is incredibly exciting. She has a lot of people who are very excited about her business idea. Constance opened an eBay store called Dwelling Elegance. Lisa from Somersault Media is creating her store look & feel. 

Once she has inventoried a home, she wants to become a trading assistant to help those clients sell the items they want to get rid of.
She also wants to sell her cousin’s stress reduction products.
She’s also thinking about selling home security products.
She isn’t sure how to price her service or how to handle logistics.

Questions:

How much should she charge for the service? She currently charges $300 for a 1,400 sq ft 2 bedrooms & 2 baths.

Give yourself credit for how phenomenal this idea is. It is very brilliant to seamlessly combine 2 different concepts. Price yourself properly. Everyone agreed that $300 was WAY too low for this incredible service. 

Homework: On Constance’s Mastermind sheet, write down how many sq feet your house is, how much stuff, how many rooms and how much you would pay for this service. 
www.ebay.com/ta is a great resource site for trading assistants.

What are good consignment rates? The group talked about consignments from 25% to 40%. Some include eBay fees, some don’t. Constance could go to the trading assistant area for Seattle and see what other people are charging. Carol charges 40% and wraps everything including fees into the price. Another woman charges 50% and covers PayPal and eBay fees. One woman takes a fee up front $5. If it sells she deducts the fee. Some folks won’t post something that won’t sell for less than $50. Mpire (www.mpire.com) has a great consignment program to help you keep track of your clients and 

Janelle encouraged everyone to quit thinking like trading assistants and think about trading posts. They are still in business because of their business model. 40% off top. Everyone pays fees. Only selling items that will sell on eBay for over a certain pric point.

Janelle picks and choose. For every 10 items that she is asked to sell, she might choose 1. 
Look at the people who are making money and look at those business models that are working. I Sold It is one of the fastest growing trading posts. 

Research: Research items that sell at a profit. Only look at completed items. Look at highest price.
www.terapeak.com: picked by eBay to disseminate all of their information. eBay is the exclusive licenser of that. Daddy Unison is Terapeak’s other company.
www.janelleelms.com/terapeak and get a free month to try it out
www.mpire.com: 
www.ebay.com:
pulse.ebay.com: check out hot items
www.google.com: new tool called google trends to find out trends
start buying products-get your feet wet
go to brick and mortar security stores 
check out the magazine rack
travel mags have good security stuff
contact security alarm company
TV show: guys steal your stuff and give product information
Hot Items List on eBay: www.ebay.com/sellercentral. Download every month to check out hot areas. Home & Garden category. Security category.

How do I place a value on an item and help my client’s know what is a realistic price?
Ask customers to research their item for a price on eBay
You can always say that you’re not interested in selling an item
You can be in charge of which items you want to sell
Constance will work on creating and putting in place the boundaries with her clients
Offer some donation/charity lists so people can get a tax write off for items you don’t want to sell or items that won’t sell.

Don’t list an item if you see that something isn’t selling or people aren’t buying, don’t sell it. eBay tells you what the current value is of something.

There are certain things you can control on eBay: marketing. You can change a price in the marketplace. Art has to think creatively about marketing. Use your newsletters to market items. Marketing will change your prices. 

Control listing and shipping process. 
Leave an inventory list with the client when you take items to sell. Do it at their house. Carol takes a blank sheet to list the items she’s taking. If there are any items that has a different pricing strategy than starting at 9.99, she makes note on the list. Make sure clients sign the contract. How do you insure other people’s possessions in your care? You can add a rider to your homeowner’s policy. Janelle self insures products. 

Don’t return to the site and pack. Take those things into your possession when you agree to list something. 

Constance says she needs to get over herself, jump in and start listing and selling items. 
Someone suggested that she start by selling something she won’t care about and get over the fear. 

Constance has a possible 3rd business: her cousin’s products. But they don’t fit with her home inventory and security store. She could help her cousin open a niche store.
Constance needs to own www.visualinventory.com. She could call them and say “Hey, I collect domains for a hobby. Do you ever think you might sell it?” and negotiate to purchase the url.
She could use www.visual-inventory.com site to sell her service & books
She could use Dwelling Elegance eBay store to sell related products
She could open an eBay store called visual-inventory to sell her service
She could use custom pages: interviews with people, top 10 things to do to protect your home
She could create a guide book for people who want to do their own inventory
She could eventually get into franchising this idea – it’s so brilliant
She could target her market in Bellevue and Medina

Homework:

We were to finish Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich (entrepreneur world). Janelle suggested we read Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office (corporate world).
Last January we all created a Personal Calendar, Business Calendar (financial goals), so we had a roadmap for our success.
There’s a bad nice that doesn’t help take care of your business.
There’s a good nice where you can still be protective of your business.

What are some things you’re working on your calendar to quit being ‘bad nice’?
Saving instead of investing
Not budgeting
Distinguishing between wants and needs
Organizing my business financial info into computer program
Making time to input sales & expense data
Monitoring how much time activities are taking
Set up more reliable computer network
Taking care of myself
Write down weekly what you did that week so you can mark your progress
Don’t buy anything on sale you wouldn’t be willing to pay full price for
Comparison shopping
Budget set amount of money to invest and auto withdraw
Change business account to her name
Set up donations every month for the year
Speak to financial planner
Research www.mpire.com 
(Janelle will see if she can have Mpire come to the eBay Success Group (formerly eBay for Beginner’s). It would be important for them to talk to us about their direction. )
Looking at insurance, disability, investigating long term care insurance
Get in sync about personal finances

How do we deal with people in our lives when they’re not in sync with us?
Are you making your business a hobby or a business?
Are you sure in your heart that it’s really going to be a viable business?

Smart Women Finish Rich
Mistakes 1-5, are you doing any of these? Janelle interviewed Becky about her experience finding a financial planner.

1. How did you find a financial planner? Becky’s grandfather died and needed a plan how to manage his money. She looked at where people lived, what cars they drove and were people doing what they wanted to? Were they living the life they wanted? Then she started talking to those people about who their financial planner was and why they picked them. She called the people who said I have a great financial planner and they helped me do what I wanted to do. 

She talked to 5 financial planners on the phone and in person. She asked, do you like your job helping people with their money? She wanted to know how they charged for their service. She wanted to know if they were motivated. Were they flipping stock and charging per transaction. If so, they could trade all day and make their money that way. She wanted to know exactly what she would be charged for. 

She did research nationwide for what people were being charged which was about 1-2% of the total investment. Some people charge per transaction. Some folks charge a yearly fee. You could get nickeled and dimed to death if you don’t know exactly what you’re being charged. She wanted to be charged on whole sum of assets so her assets would grow and they would be motivated to help them grow. 

Janelle asked what your motivations for being in business are. Becky knew if they weren’t interested in making money, they wouldn’t be interested in making money for her. Attitude was important. Becky didn’t use rude, condescending financial planners.
The planner she chose, educated her, took time to answer questions fully and made sure she left understanding completely what they were going to do. Her planner also took the time to return phone calls and emails and was attentive to her needs. 

Becky went into the meetings without her significant other. When you inherit money it’s considered a separate property. You need a separate property trust to protect it. Community property is any possession and monies earned while married. When you inherit money you want to protect it in many different ways. If it’s a large sum of money you want to be in charge of making the decisions. You are in charge of how that money gets distributed. After her personal property trust was done. Then her significant other joined her in other meetings to decide what to do.

She also wanted to attend the initial meetings alone because she wanted the person she was working with to respect her and her decision making. She wanted a personal relationship with that person. She needed security that she was being listened to. 

Janelle stressed that it’s important for you to understand your financial well being incase your spouse should go…either divorce or death. You must own the knowledge of being financially responsible for everything in your household. You can share the responsibility. 

Your financial planner should make you understand what you’ve got. You have to understand what they’re investing in and why. Becky’s financial planner asked her if there was anything she wouldn’t invest in. She felt empowered to say what her boundaries were and that if she saw that on her statement she would close her account. They took her seriously.

Other bad habits & how to correct them:
Not taking credit card debt seriously. Don’t be an ostrich. Read your statements. Don’t be late. They can bump up your interest rate to outrageous rates.
Get a copy of your credit report and get your credit score when applying for a business loan. 
Look at your 30 year mortgage. Automate this with your bank. Take out 1 extra payment. Don’t pay 30 year mortgage. Don’t forget how much it costs. 
Pay your mortgage twice a month. Check and see if there’s prepayment policy.
Sign up for David Bach’s newsletter. (www.finishrich.com)

Buy your first house or your first investment property. Why do we wait to buy our first investment property? Real estate is the only investment that you can make and use the bank’s money to make your income grow. Don’t put it off.

Putting off Savings for Retirement. Read the Automatic Millionaire. Review David Bach’s Latte factor. Learn how saving $10/day turns into 1 million dollars.

Homework:

Annette’s shower next month, sign up to bring stuff
Must have Constance’s mastermind list to attend the meeting
Include the following:
The square feet of your place
How much ‘stuff’ you have
How many rooms
Approx price you would be willing to pay for her service
Rebecca will present her business idea for mastermind
Go to www.unstoppable.net and sign up for free insight of the day

August meeting homework – come prepared to discuss:

1. Smart Women Finish Rich – Read Step 6, Mistake 6-10. If you are currently doing any of these, write down your actions steps to stop in your tracks and fix it.

2. Read the Invitation & Part 1 of “Unstoppable Women – Achieve ANY Breakthrough Goal in 30 days” by Cynthia Kersey. Fill in/Do all of the exercises for that chapter.

3. Women’s Business Mastermind – Take another look at Rebecca’s business plan/online business and recommend 5 things for her to consider in her business.