Getting to answer ecommerce questions is one of the best things about being an online sales coach. Watching students have their “aha” moment is fantastic.
Recently I had the chance to do a Q&A session in my online Facebook group, and we covered A LOT of info.
Stuff like:
- Deciding whether to start just one online store or multiple online businesses
- Whether marketplaces are always the right places to start selling
- Determining whether you should sell a product you’re passionate about…or just a product that will get you going faster
- How to make working with friends or family more effective
And in addition to talking about selling on marketplaces and all of the good stuff mentioned above, we also touched on the topic of possibly having to – gulp- fire the people that you love.
Over the years, I have actually fired my husband Jared multiple times.
Not because he’s failing—he’s amazing. When I’ve got a million things going on, he doesn’t hesitate to jump in and help. Half the time he’s our entire tech department. But as you’ll hear in the podcast, he has his own passion, and it’s not selling products online.
So when I fire him, it’s because I know he needs to focus on his stuff, not mine.
But a lot of times when we think about working with family or friends, it’s not that kind of situation. Firing family—or anyone you care about—is hard.
For instance, my daughters hired some junior high-aged friends of theirs to help them ship their products.
They were really specific about how they wanted their products packaged and shipped right. Then a few shipping labels got placed on the wrong packages, and they had to do some “fix-it” customer service—which they did NOT enjoy.
You can probably guess what happened next: they had to have a hard conversation with a friend or two.
The good news is that they eventually re-hired those same kids after giving them some additional training. Soon they were packing boxes and having a pizza party afterward.
It’s not always that easy, but when you’re running your own online business, it can be necessary. And you’ll get some ideas about what you can do as you listen to our discussion.
But there’s one more tough subject we had to tackle, and that is being willing to be bad when you’re first getting started.
More than a decade ago, I posted some pieces of craft vinyl up online and marked them for sale. They sold and I was super excited.
The next day, I posted another product. It did not sell. Not at all.
But I decided to keep going, so the third day, I posted a product for sale. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. It did not sell.
And that’s when I decided that I completely sucked at selling online and that I should just give up. I should just close my online store and be done.
But there was a voice, a feeling—whatever you personally call it—that told me not to quit selling online. Even if I felt like I was REALLY bad at what I was trying to do.
Sigh…
So I didn’t. And then things started to click. I learned what the customers who were buying from my online store wanted. And they helped me understand how I could serve them.
The reality is that virtually nobody will hit it out of the park every time they try something new. Sometimes you’re going to absolutely suck. I mean, I’d never sold online before. Of COURSE there’d be mistakes. But thanks to some encouragement, I kept selling online, growing, learning and getting better. And so can YOU.
This podcast is full of answers to great ecommerce questions. It’s perfect whether you’re just getting started with your online selling journey OR you need a reminder of just how well you’re doing with your existing online store. Give it a listen.
Additional Resources
Search previous podcast episodes here.
Connect with Alison
Facebook: @alisonjprince
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Click here to learn about the 0-100K System and how you can launch and grow your own online business.
