Making a Living Without a Job: Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love by Barbara Winter

Author:Barbara Winter [Winter, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780553386608
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Published: 2009-08-25T12:28:42+00:00

the right advertising in the right media

a plan for expanding your advertising once you’ve refined your ads

Finding the right product is, of course, critical. As in any undertaking, think about products that you’re crazy about yourself. It might be something that’s a new twist on an ordinary item (such as a gourmet cake) or something that’s found in your area but not easily available elsewhere.

Or you could look for a product that appeals to a niche market, such as a hobby or craft item that could be marketed to a specialty group. Lots of environmentally friendly products were first sold this way to kindred spirits concerned about the planet.

Your product could also be something you manufacture yourself. Silversmith J. H. Breakell was a struggling Rhode Island artist until a friend urged him to invest his life savings in a small ad in The New Yorker magazine offering his silver broccoli pin for sale by mail order. Thousands of artisans have built wonderful businesses selling through online sites such as Etsy.

Then, of course, there’s eBay, the most successful of the online auction sites. In 2006, I was invited to do a workshop at eBay Live in Las Vegas. It was an extraordinary experience—15,000 sellers from around the world gathered to swap ideas and information. Many of those sellers began very modestly and discovered that there was a greater opportunity to grow their own business than they first realized.

Other mail-order marketers put together a collection of related items in a catalog or on a website. The secret to success with this method is to be willing to begin modestly and let it grow gradually. If you do, you’ll be in fine company. A number of today’s mail-order giants, including L. L. Bean and Lillian Vernon, began with a single product.

Know your audience and aim at them. Mail-order pro Tyler Hicks advises, “You will often find it easier to sell 1,000 special wrenches to a list of 50,000 plumbers than it is to sell 1,000 toothbrushes to a list of 50,000 people with real teeth. Sell a mailorder product to a clearly defined audience whenever you can because, in general, your sales costs will be lower and your profit higher.”

Besides giving you the freedom to live anywhere you want, mail order has another advantage that makes it ideal. Eventually, a mail-order operation can almost run itself—freeing you to develop other ideas.

With one in every four dollars spent in the United States now going to mail-order businesses, shopping via the mail has become respectable. Cocooners love shopping this way, as do busy people. When you start finding money in your mailbox, you’ll love mail order as much as I do.

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