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12 Point ecommerce Check List

Knowing What You Have to Offer ... Essential Business Tool for web site builders, owners and home businesses ...

12 Point e-commerce Check List

You're probably more familiar with the name Boo.com than KPMG. Boo.com were a much hyped clothing website which went down spectacularly a short while ago. KPMG are the liquidators (good business to be in at the moment - unfortuately for some!) In a bizarre move of generosity, they've issued a 12 point check list to help other companies going the same way (surely doing themselves out of work here?)

1.Have a good original idea. Make sure that you are not simply recreating another distribution channel or generic 'shop'. E-businesses based on innovative patent technology or "clicks and mortar" businesses such as retailer "Next" can both work well. Break the rules!

2.Focus on building sustainable income, not just a number of hits or customer registrations.

3.Develop and use key performance indicators that provide early warning signals - such as fluctuations in income per hit rates.

4.Make your site easy to buy from and find a way to measure and monitor customer satisfaction levels - this is your lifeblood.

5.Understand and monitor the actual and forecast cash flows of the business or hire someone who can do this for you - your idea must be commercially viable. Good financial advice is necessary to ensure you build reality and cash flow into your business plan. Have solid fiancial projections that can be robustly scrutinised for the future of the business.

6.Do not give your investors or bankers surprises: keep them informed and ask for their input - you will need them to trust you if things become difficult. You must build transparent relationships with potential investors and be prepared to accept their feedback as to what is fundable or not.

7.Ensure that you have a quality management team for the business. These people should have management and industry expertise in the relevant sector, be committed to the project, be strategic, and commercial thinkers and have excellent project management skills.

8.Continually re-assess and test the current validity of your original business model and do not be scared to change tack or stop.

9.Keep looking outside of your business - barriers to entry for competition will be low and new competition will emerge quickly.

10.Consider commercial alliances - there will be many opportunities to join forces with similar businesses.

11.Develop a contingency plan so that you can react quickly and positively if your marketplace changes overnight.

12.Do not stick your e-head in the e-sand if things start to go off plan - proactively seek advice.

Phew! Ok, many of you may think that none of this is relevant.
"Hey, I'm just one person, not a big company."
It is relevant, and you should be taking note. No matter your size (and I'm not talking waistlines), many of these points matter MORE, precisely because you are a one man (woman) band. Less resources to back on, less time, less room for error. The more that you can get used to making the most of what you do have, not wasting resources, and taking advice when you can - the more chances of achieving those goals - Your own Home Business.

Best of everything,

Vic Carrara
Only for profit.com

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Knowing what you have to offer - Essential Business Tool
by Vic Carrara.

Several years after graduation, some students from Harvard university were surveyed. Surveyed to see whether they were on the way to achieving their ambitions. 3% were. They were also the highest earners of the group.
What had this 3% done to give themselves the potential of achieving their ambitions?
1. At graduation they took stock of where they were and what they had tooffer.
2. They made a decision as to where they wanted to be in 5, 10, 20 year's time.
3. They took the steps necessary to achieve their goals.

The bottom line is that they planned. For them, chance had little to do with their futures. You would have given them great odds in achieving their goals. Dreams and ambitions are great things. Expecting those dreams to happen without planning - well that is just dreaming.

"People don't plan to fail. They fail to plan". Mark McCormack

Let's assume that you know your destination. As you're reading this magazine it's fair to assume that you want to start your own business. So where do you go from here? Don't discount anything. Don't assume anything.

We're all familiar with the PostIt by 3M. But did you know that it was a failure? Well at least in terms of the original purpose. 3M originally set their scientists the goal of developing a strong glue. They conducted thousands of tests, producing thousands of samples. One of these was this light tack glue which remained sticky. Useless! Not at all what was wanted. Ten years later while going through the old notes, this formula was rediscovered. "Aha" thought some bright spark and the rest, as we say, is history.

If the moral isn't clear, here it is in plain speak. Don't dismiss any skill, ability, interest, desire, knowledge, or passion that you have. They all come together to make you - a unique package that is special and marketable. More importantly, some of these skills acquire different importance at different times - Value them all. Let's take stock of where you are today. You'll need plenty of paper and your favourite pen.
Choose twelve words that you believe sum up your skills and interests. Draw a circle and mark off twelve points. By each mark write one of the skills.
Now start pairing them off. Don't be choosy. You want to look at all the combinations.
Now explore connections between these two skills. Don't discount any as being too strange.
Take notes as ideas come up.
You can also try substituting some words with alternatives.
What happens when you use those? Write all these pairings on pieces of paper. Allow yourself several hours over a period of days to do this.
Next get all those pieces of paper and throw them on the floor. Pick pairs up at random and see what combinations come up. Get your partner, children, friends involved. Laugh at some of the random choices, but still keep note of them.

"If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it" Albert Einstein.

You now have a fuller picture of your potentials. Many more options open to you (even more confusion!) You're also hopefully more excited, laughed-out, and positive.

The next step is connecting today realities with your tomorrow dreams .
Ah, but that's another article, another time. Enough now for you to start your inventory list and ready yourself.

Best of everything,

Vic Carrara
Only for Profit.com

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If you have a penny and I have a penny and we exhange pennies, you still have one penny and I still have one penny. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas, you have two ideas and I now have two ideas.

 

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