So many entrepreneurs struggle to create a successful home-based business – going through times of plenty, and times of drought. Only about 18% of entrepreneurs are extremely successful. Want to know a small business success secret? Successful entrepreneurs make the best use of resources to accomplish more with less effort – they use the principle of leverage.
Small business resources that entrepreneurs can leverage include knowledge, expertise, time, human resources, systems and technology. The result of leverage is a turn-key business that can “run itself”, generate more profits with less stress, and allow for the freedom to enjoy prosperity.
A great way to leverage technology is to automate and simplify your sales and marketing with an online professional shopping cart. This small business success secret allows you to put your small home-based business on autopilot, exposing hidden profit sources. Using an online shopping cart is the fastest and most flexible way to do business online, without expensive and complicated software.
The shopping cart small business success secret will grow your online business by leaps and bounds when you:
o Use custom forms and opt-in boxes to collect names and email addresses of website visitors
o Keep in touch with your customers 24/7
o Maintain accurate contact information of your clients and prospects
o Automate product sales and purchases
o Send personal automatic email responses (auto responders) to inquiries, registrations, purchases, and to follow up with prospects
o Deliver scheduled, informative emails, newsletters and promotional messages to your mailing list
o Set up multiple affiliate programs for others to market your business
o Track the success of your ads and emails
o Test and track your website links
o Use questionnaires to discover customer needs
Statistics show that you need to contact a prospective customer 7-9 times, before they remember your business. Many entrepreneurs stop at only 2-3 follow-ups and are losing 70-80% of their sales! The online shopping cart will help you follow-up easily and effortlessly with autoresponders.
It is easy to believe that doing already contracted work is more important than marketing, but you must have marketing systems in place to generate sales consistently. You want a successful home-based business, not the feast-or-famine roller coaster that many home-based business entrepreneurs experience. Even if you are doing well now, keep looking toward the future and how to further take advantage of this small business success secret.
Several online shopping cart companies offer similar services, but at the very minimum, you want to ensure the program you choose:
o Offers support services
o Offers free tools
o Is easy and accessible
o Is simple to setup, even for a novice
o Offers multiple packages
o Offers a NO RISK trial period
Here’s how to get started with an online shopping cart:
1) Identify your marketing and sales goals.
2) Determine what products and services to sell on the internet.
3) Sign up for an online shopping cart and discover how you can easily use its internet marketing tools to achieve your goals.
4) Get the help of an e-Commerce Virtual Assistant or Shopping Cart Strategist who has the technical cart skills and strategic expertise to effectively market your business online
The online shopping cart technology and its small business resources are essential to any successful home-based business. Implement this small business success secret to develop a consistently thriving business that is easy to manage, achieve your marketing goals with ease and skyrocket your sales.
Copyright 2009, Michele Hanson-O’Reggio. All rights reserved.