Dropship, stock or mix?

First, to dismiss any concerns that I am an idiot…..dropshipping is good. It is a money saver, and my cash doesn’t get tied up. I understand its merits to my business. I am not going to stop doing this-no room for negotiation.

Second, there are certain issues that are a natural part of stocking items:

Do you have warehousing space or garage space or some other space you can scrape together?
Can you guess best what your customers will want?
Do you have enough cash allow your money to sit in your warehouse?

And, obviously in my mind, stocking big items is not even an issue. I am willing to take less margin and make whatever margin I can off of the larger items. The issue here is are there some items that are worth stocking while dropshipping the greater portion of your product?

And, the answer to this question is my present quandry. Here are what I view as an acceptable option to stocking items:

I “bought” into a distributorship last year. I had a product line I really wanted to have. And, the only way to get “in” was to have a certain size initial order. And, I bit and bought in. I now have some clearance items I need to get rid of. Fortunately, I have had to reorder the items I really wanted. “Stocking” was necessary here, but a Clearance sale is coming soon for the other items.
Buying in volume to get better pricing on items sold on existing websites. Frankly, this is the reason I am writing this entry. Should I buy items at 80% off the price the individual item is available on a import website OR should I discontinue the item entirely? Based on sales, I am leaning toward discontinuing the items. [Translate: see the Clearance portion of my site]

In quick summary, I am certain a mix is the best option. I believe a business/website needs to weigh its overall goals. If a product is a “must”, then you negotiate and stock a few things. But, if the profit is minimal and the product is not one of your core items, I recommend strongly emphasizing the dropship products made available to you by your manufacturer…..I think I will. 😉

I am a pill-swallowing bigot

This is not something I am proud of. And, it is not something I realized was part of my “growing-up” training, but I am a pill-swallowing bigot.

Of course, to clarify, I don’t take lots of pills for pain, addiction, or any other contrived illness. I take a few vitamins every morning (my wife isn’t much of a fish eater, so I have to have the Omega-3), so this is the extent of my pill-popping. I put my vitamins in a weekly plastic container, and I drop all of them in my mouth at one time and swallow them all together. My wife and kids stare in awe…..

My wife coaches the kids, “Put some liquid in your mouth, then drop the pill in. Take in some more liquid, and relax your tongue.”

And, while I can’t disagree with some of her advice, I can’t help but snicker a bit. My advice is more like, “Put the pill in your mouth, and take a drink. Visualize/nudge the pill into the swallowing flow, and just let it go down.”

As the kids practiced with Smarties this morning with the hopes that they will soon be able to swallow their vitamins (graduating from the chewables), I continued to smile and listen to my wife’s coaching. She is better than me at many things, but I can swallow EIGHT pills at one time!!!

Time for an employee?

Thus far, I have been very fortunate to have people available to help my business just when I needed them. Some examples of this:

When I had a large assembly order from my distribution business, I was able to get my brother, warehouse partner and sons, a supplier and his son, and even my foster son to help. I worked hard, but I didn’t have to do it all alone.
When I began selling P&G products to my large retail client, I worked an arrangement with my warehouse “partner”. I paid the rent, and he made sure the trucks got loaded and unloaded. And, since he was only called upon 5-7 times per month, it was a pretty good deal for him. And, when we split up, he got to keep the forklift.
With very few exceptions, my brother pulls all of the warehouse orders. I order the product and pay for the warehouse space, and he makes the pallet labels and preps them for pickup.
Finally, my new warehouse comes with a warehouse manager 3 days per week. As long as my deliveries/pickups occur on those 3 days, I have no regrets about not having an employee.

Well, I believe in the immediate, I can still maintain my “employee-free” status. I had an initial meeting with a potential employee today. And, I think his trial period could be a win-win. My goal is to allow him to choose one of “more-hands-on” eBay purchases. Since he is mid-20’s and looking for an opportunity that gets him excited. I think one of the choices I have collecting dust could be attractive to him. Once he makes his choice, we will establish an hourly rate and a “cost” for the existing business/equipment. As he works his hours to pay it off, he will be working with the Shopping Cart software and other functions that will be a part of his existence as he builds his own business in the virtual and possibly concrete world.

Yes, today was a busy day. I also received information to start reselling a new sign product. 2008 may be a very busy year…

A Good Omen?

I have bought 3 or 4 businesses on eBay. And, with the exception of my sign business, they have all had very limited potential. They have been much more hands on than what I am willing to manage with my hands already full with other businesses responsibilities. Unfortunately, my most recent business falls into this category, but it did lead to a fit….

My most recent eBay purchase involved a business with both equipment and product. Although not very complex, the equipment allowed the product to be converted into something that was much more valuable than the raw materials. And, it was this possibility that lured me into spending some of my hard earned money on its potential. Once the many boxes showed up from the eBay seller, I went through them. And, they everything he promised. The most exciting part to me was having a distributorship of a specialized printer. I thought, “I can make my money back reselling the printer.” And, to do this, I needed to ensure the printer was maintained on the sites it was already being promoted. And, it is here our story begins……

I received a casual email from the eBay seller about a site where the printer was being promoted, and the owner of the “promotion” site was being CCed. I looked at the promotion site, and emailed the owner as to what the site did. He explained it was a B2B site, with over 5,000 products. He explained how the orders came in and how they were all processed–it was a VERY automated process. And, by the way, he was interested in selling the site. And, after some discussion, terms being bounced around, and a willingness to throw in the towel more than once, I put down a deposit check. I felt good about it and went off on our post-Christmas trip.

As, a slight aside, I also started a sister site to my sign site. And, I had been wondering when the first sale would come. Well [here is the omen part], my first sale from my new site came from someone who is in the industry of my new business. And, if it is not an omen, it sure is a convenient occurrence to keep me positive on the whole idea….

And, unless I miss my guess, additional entries will follow about this whole process…..

The forward that was a reply….

Unfortunately, this is not the first time I have done this. The last time was 4 or 5 years ago. I replied from my phone to a friend. And, I only realized afterward that when I meant to forward I actually had replied.

Well, in 2007 I did it again. A business partner and I made a presentation to an old/new customer on Friday. (Old because I dealt with him in a previous job, but new experience with him in this job) During our presentation both he and I made humorous references to our previous time working together. (I warehoused numerous items for him in a “reverse-logistics” projects. The project turned into a boondoggle that I barely broke even on.) My business partner made some good suggestions regarding other areas of their project, and when we left, we both thought it went okay. They let us know that they would be reviewing another proposal from another possible supplier that afternoon.

Their was a couple emails exchanged this week prior to my grievous error. I believed I was forwarding an email to my business partner when it was a reply to this customer. After I saw who it was sent to, I breathed a DARN. Then, it was time to craft a follow email that made my comments as palatable as possible. Besides my followup email, my business partner did send a very effective response to our customer inquiry. We certainly showed we are capable of providing email support after work hours.

The next day, I received two emails from my customer. The first was very curt and addressed the biggest sin of my missent email. The second email seemed to have accepted a portion of the explanation I attempted to provide there. He gave us some budget numbers, and although he may have been a little miffed, he realized the service we are offering to provide is something not readily available.

Where will this ultimately go? Well, we believe the customer has called our supplier (the name was accidentally dropped by my business partner) and might be trying to go around us or gather numbers to make us lower our price. We can only go so low, and if we get the web hosting of the “reverse-logistics-store”, I will consider it a success. This customer is known for leaning on you hard and not caring if you make or lose money-they think you should be grateful for the pleasure of dealing with them. So, we will see if we are….

Past was Exorcised

The haunting was fully evidenced Sunday morning. It wasn’t screams of an unknown origin, objects moving without visible physical assistance, or smells of events from the past, it was the disappearance of my website on the search engine. I do a link:www.website.com and site:www.website.com and there were no results. I knew that this was no accident-the haunting had begun. And, the 7050 results that I received the night before, were now completely gone. So, I accepted my sentence and hoped it would not extend to far beyond the 30 days I was serving.

I continued to get used to the idea–I did my mourning all day Sunday. And, when the day was over, I was very used to the idea of having more free time over Christmas and New Years. And, I slept much better this night than the previous two nights.

Monday morning I did another check to make sure the site was still gone. Then, I was talking to a supplier and telling him my story. He went to the search engine and typed in my website, and it appeared. Then, I did the same thing. My first reaction, “It is a caching issue. I have 29 days left in my sentence.” Then I closed my browser, and afer opening it, I tried again–my site was still there. Then, I received a couple of phone calls, and I had them check my site–it came up in their search results, too. Then, I checked my Shopping Cart Tools — it showed I was getting hits from this search engine. Gradually, it started to sink in–I was being paroled! I may have a virtual ankle bracelet on, but I have no reason to summon the authorities as I breach my parole.

Bottom Line: First, don’t do anything to violate the search engine guidelines. Second, if you page is in violation and you receive an email from the search engine, clean up the problem and as to be reconsidered as quickly as possible. Third and finally, expect the search engine to honor their 30 day threat (or whatever the time frame), but be grateful if you are given a reprieve…and don’t be ignorant of the guidelines again!

My websites past haunting me….

When I bought my sign site on eBay last year, I knew it had very good placement on a few key words. I didn’t think about it much. I just knew I did not want to change the site. I change a product here or there, but I didn’t do anything to all of the other baggage on the website.

Well, today my ignorance is haunting me. I received an email from the search engine telling me that my site has been bad, and all/some pages will be removed. I will need to make changes and reapply for consideration on this search engine.

I did make all of the changes (the text mentioned in the email was hidden at the bottom of the page), and I reapplied for consideration on the website. My pages are still on the site, so I don’t know if they will all disappear or if some will disappear or what will happen due to my infraction. I get about half the traffic from another popular search engine as I get from this one. So, if I am removed entirely, my business will not dry up. However, it certainly does fill me with dread…

Why did this happen? I reviewed the pages at this search engine. I can only guess someone who covets my spot in the rankings turned the site in. I used to be #1 on a few key terms on this search engine, and I have since dropped to #3. And, once this all plays out, I don’t know where I will drop in the result rankings. And, if the sales slow down, I will just put up more things on the site to sell. And, I will continue to count my blessings for the opportunities the site has provided…

Business and Personal on same login

I had a little bit of a scary experience earlier today…..

I logged into my business bank account (recently it was set up so my personal and business accounts were both available with one login — my business login). A week or so ago I scheduled quite a few bills to be paid (I rarely right a real check most all of them are sent through my online bill pay). I login tonight to pay a couple more bills, AND I find my personal checking account overdrawn….and this is not something that happens often…..

I promptly called the bank to try and get to the bottom of it. And, with really only slight encouragement from the online bank representative, I got the problem fixed.

I transferred the necessary funds from my business checking account to my personal account. And, I went ahead and transferred the additional funds to my personal account to cover my business expenses that I needed to reimburse myself for spending.
I went through and changed all previously scheduled payments so they were drawing from the correct account.
And, I asked that since this was my BUSINESS login that my BUSINESS account be the primary checking acccount. And, despite the help of the bank representatives efforts, he was told that this functionality was NOT built into the application.

Although I certainly had the ability to choose the correct checking account, it just seems that that functionality should have been maintained as the business/personal accounts were joined together.

MORALE: When it comes to your money, assume nothing…..

It is what siblings do….

I just met a business partner this morning to prepare some “baskets” for our customers and hope-to-have customers. Typically, when we meet I drag some number of my 4 kids along. However, today, he had all 3 of his kids. While we were trying to figure out how to use a small trash can with a step on lid (my company sells janitorial supplies), his kids played nicely kicking a soccer ball around the warehouse. But, as the mornings donuts became fully integrated into the kids systems, it got a little crazier. We knew we needed to finish quickly when the youngest child had the middle child in a neck lock.

First, these were very good kids. But, as a father, the kids either know we are not as strict as the mothers or they just were sick of the day being about daddy’s errands. And, after having lived through similar embarrassing experiences where my kids seemed like wholly terrors in front of business parters (or grocery shoppers or fellow restaurant diners), it was a relief to know that siblings are just that way.

Second, the family dynamics are similar. The youngest kid knows they can yell and the parents may jump a little quicker knowing the parents wonder how they are being tortured. And, the older child is expected not to participate in behavior that leads mom and dad to be involved. So, the youngest child knows how to make the world revolve around them.

Third as much as siblings are capable of driving each other crazy, they also have a special ability to work with (and also torment) their siblings in ways that no one else can. Even when they claim to hate their siblings, they are also realizing that 30 minutes from now they will be playing (or existing together) with no hard feelings about the “ancient” comments.

Lastly, as a parent, it gives us profound relief when we know that other parents occassionally struggle as they attempt to give the world the best kids they can. With very few exceptions, no one event will alterate a child beyond repair. As parents, we hope we put in enough good to balance out the bad. And, if that fails, you hope your prayers can tip the scales…..

Christmas Letter (1999)

Dear friends and family:

Holiday Greetings from the Gruenbaums!! As the days and hours click by on the 20^th Century, we hope you are investing all of your free time stocking your bomb shelter. We plan on going to the moon for New Year’s, but we wish all who will be earth bound good luck.

Andy had a very active year. He started the year working as an Internet consultant at Battelle. He then spun the roulette wheel and worked on the Victoria’s Secret web site for a few months. However, Andy was last seen serving as a Systems Engineer (Business Analyst) at Qwest Communications. He seems to be happy…… In August, Andy said goodbye to late nights and excessive computer time. He received his Masters in Business Administration from Franklin University.

Judy continues her work at Bank One. Although she thought about leaving earlier in the year, it has calmed down a bit and is going better. She was very active in the speech-making department this year. It was her fourth year to teach at Northwestern University at an Employee Benefits Trust School. She was also invited to address a bunch of bank examiners (the feds) in San Diego, and she made her radio debut as a guest host on a weekly call in show about financial planning in Louisiana.

The boys are the highlight of our life. Both are enjoying their first year of preschool. Timmy (age 4 ½) is a bit more serious (and dramatic) than his brother, and is anxious to learn how to read. Timmy is capable of answering many of the first round questions on “Do You Want To Be A Millionaire?” When he is not asking questions or troubleshooting our old PC, he works on polishing his acting skills. Although Jeffy (age 3 ½) is all play, he has really blossomed this year. He gives his heart into everything he does, but will drop everything to color or eat candy. They bring us our greatest joy!!

No one every said having a new house is cheap. We concentrated on the outside this summer by investing in a swing set, a tractor, a brick patio, seeding the yard and a little landscaping. Thankfully, the boys are really careful mowing around me while we play on the slide. 🙂 We had a big garden, and were very concerned that our corn would be eaten by the numerous coons and deer nearby. But, alas, the drought got it instead. We will try again next year.

The family was fortunate to have two vacations this year: Rat World (Disney) and Country Music’s Eastern Home (Gatlinburg). The boys loved the swimming and the parents loved that they were away from their jobs. Finally this year, we have really placed an importance on the spiritual side of our lives. We are at the church a couple of nights per week and are very involved. We teach Sunday School, sing in the choir, and are involved in Bible studies.

It is God’s gift of His Son that gives value to the last Christmas of this millennium and all the Christmases of the next millennium. May God bless you with a desire to really know Him in the coming year.

The Gruenbaums