The most successful businesspersons in the world are not those who were born with money, or who came by it because they won the lottery. The most successful businesspersons are those who knew what to do with the money they had. They knew where to invest the money, how to make it grow, and how to use it to help other people and themselves. In other words, the most successful businesspersons, and perhaps the richest people in the world, know how to handle money because they know how to recognize business opportunities when these business opportunities came knocking.

If you want to earn money and get rich yourself, you need to find business opportunities. Believe it or not, despite our crowded Internet marketplace, and equally crowded brick-and-mortar marketplace, business opportunities still abound. In fact, with the upsurge of products and services, there are even more business opportunities you can take advantage of. For instance, our paperless workplace, although convenient, has also glued people to their computer screens and even damaged a good many postures. Cater to office persons by placing a spa in an office building, and offer low rates to employees who want to have the tensions of the day massaged out of their bodies.

This is only one of the business opportunities that you can look at, but it encapsulates what business is: finding a need, and filling it. All you need to do is to look for what needs are not yet filled, and then find a way to fill that need. This may involve a lot of research on your part, as you will need to look for people with technical expertise, financial expertise, business know-how, and even connections in order to utilize the business opportunity to your greatest advantage. To find that unmet need, you will need strong fingers to click on your mouse, and strong legs to set you walking.

First, enter the Internet marketplace and study it on your own terms. What sites are popular nowadays? With the Web 2.0 paradigm, everyone with an Internet connection can speak out online. This means that many websites will offer people a chance to speak out and have themselves heard, perhaps through blogs, online diaries, photo journals, video journals, and personal websites. Look through the most popular blogs and websites, and see what they provide; look at what they also cannot provide, and use your conclusions to find a business opportunity that you can look into.

Second, go to your local mall and, as in the Internet marketplace, study it on your own terms. What stores are popular, and what kinds of customers does the mall cater to? As you study these customers and stores, look at what unmet needs may still exist. Remember, every new generation born will have its own needs and wants, so there are many products and services that you can still offer.

Third, read your local newspaper, and keep abreast of the news, especially as it pertains to business and lifestyle. You can look at emerging trends and see how you can help out, and still gain money in the process. If possible, look at things that people will always need: food, shelter, and clothing. See how these absolute necessities can play into your strategy.

Fourth, you can go back to school to study business. You will learn how to run a business, and what you need to have in order to manage one correctly. Moreover, you will be able to meet a lot of people on the same intellectual level as you: they can even help you put up your business, and you can all work together, applying all the knowledge that you got back in business school!

There are still many ways by which you can find business opportunities. Whether you study the market, look at trends, or go back to school, you will find ways to help more people and get money to work for you. As long as you know how to see a business opportunity, you will find ways to milk it for all its worth.

Welcome to the astonishing world of marketplace (business to business) for importer exporters. B2B provides an overall satisfaction to buyers and suppliers. The business portal is a gateway for online services for all businesses and provides easy and convenient access to information. The portals contain one of the most enormous & exceptional buyers market and well know manufacturers, suppliers and exporters. Is serving the role of a one stop destination for any type of requirement, the listing of businesses here is simply unmatchable. Additionally you can find a massive amount of trade leads and knowledge, required to accelerate the growth of every business.

These days B2B portal plays a vital role in building a profitable and value-oriented relationship between the buyers and supplier and many individuals involved in them. They create searchable list of good suppliers and products which are efficiently marketed through direct marketing initiatives resulting in the buyers market reaching the right suppliers at the right time.

The B2B portal help sellers find target buyers market for the products and services they can supply and accelerate connections between importers exporters and also facilitate trading among them. They can find local, domestic or international suppliers quickly and precisely in a single destination. Today the buyers market is more intentional and business buying oriented and has a good buying capacity. The ultimate platform for promoting businesses to other businesses is the online marketplace. With the worldwide usage of internet, people are depending on the virtual online world to buy and sell products and services. It has now become essential to have an online presence even for a physical business with not much online sales. The B2B portals are playing a significant role and are actually helping organizations to streamline their businesses and constructing high distribution networks.

The marketplace is a unique online business point for importers exporters that provides you with opportunity to find new business associates and partners in other parts of the world. These sites host a lot of useful business information that you use to communicate with the vendors in other countries and fix new deals for mutual benefit. Suppliers who register with marketplace get opportunity for new product ideas to sell their products round the globe and likewise this also provides them with opportunity to introduce their products that are peculiar to them or their location only, to buyers, sellers and suppliers in other countries.

Marketplace is the only choice for not only small business but also by big and large businesses. This provides a good opportunity to keep knowledge on market trends and emerging demands in the market. It is a known fact that B2B portals hardly cost anything to the business but serves lasting benefits to grow your businesses manifold. So basically it is like supply chain, something which is mandatory for a business organization to survive in this age of tough competition.

Since a few months before its release, Amazon has been marketing their new AWS marketplace to no end. Is it as great as the company is saying or is it just another run of the mill program? Amazon AWS marketplace was set up with the intent of placing all of the Amazon Machine Images in one location. The information included with each AMI is pricing, reviews, and all of this in a simple, user-friendly interface.

Amazon AWS Marketplace Positives

Amazon has made it a lot easier to find their AMIs by specification. The marketplace is easy to search and once you are a member, it is easy to get started immediately. The billing process is easy to understand and customers pay through Amazon like they would with any other service provided by the company.

While the idea is great, it is not a marketplace like you would think, at least not yet. However, to date, Amazon is the only company that has come out with this type of marketplace.

Business owners who are looking to expand to the cloud, and expand their presence in the cloud can definitely benefit from the new online marketplace. It allows for preconfigured settings in shopping carts and allows them to add more technical services.

Small business owners will now be able to offer services and products from major companies like 10gen and Microsoft.

Amazon AWS Marketplace Isn’t That Impressive

It could be the fact that it is a new interface, and it may be because they haven’t included everything they wanted to include yet. However, the marketplace really isn’t all that impressive. The virtual appliances are not anything we haven’t seen before and there isn’t much room for user configuration.

While it isn’t very impressive yet, Amazon could have some surprises in store for us when they start receiving user feedback and see reviews of their product online. Honestly, launching any program that contains an online marketplace is a big step for Amazon. After all, we haven’t seen anything like it from their competitors.

The Greatest Benefit

Throughout all of the speculation of what everyone thinks will happen with the Amazon AWS marketplace, there are a lot of positives that can be found. Like any new program that becomes available, it starts off small and develops through user feedback and the needs of customers.

The best benefit from the new marketplace is that it can easily be combined with the billing you already get from Amazon services. This makes keeping tabs on expenses a lot easier for a small business. The service also has the potential to help small businesses grow into larger, more self-sufficient businesses in the long run. It allows them to work with major companies and get their hands on newer products a lot easier than they could have before.

For years, people have had their businesses within an online marketplace such as eBay. Of course, millionaires have been made, though they didn’t become millionaires overnight. You have to make sure that you understand the process of the marketplace that you use and that you keep up on what you’re doing. Keep in mind that you will run into some harsh customers as it’s going to be hard to please everyone you do business with. However, the payoffs to having your own online business can far outweigh the challenges. Read below to learn how to set up your first online business.

Read Up About Online Businesses
The first approach you want to do before even selling your first item is going to a few sites and reading up on how some people have went about in starting their online marketplace business. Try not to get so caught up in it that you start buying a ton of useless books. There are many free sources online that you can study from without having to pay a dime. Alternatively, you can go into the eBay community and read up on other people’s progress to starting their own business. That’s probably the best way to get yourself prepared in what you’re getting yourself into.

Learn more by watching videos
You can even educate yourself on video sharing sites such as You-Tube. You-Tube users may post tutorials or technique videos on their channel so that you can learn and benefit from what they’re doing. It’s a great way for you to also connect with more sellers and maybe you both can combine your businesses together. Tons of partnerships have happened this way alone and they continue to happen like this. Videos are a nice way to visually see how one goes about in the process of listing their items up and marketing themselves in order to get sales.

Start Small
Don’t start listing a lot of items on your eBay account at once when you first begin. You want to sell enough so you can gain enough feedback over time to make it easier to sell more later. You don’t want to overburden yourself by having to ship out more products than you can keep up with. Always start with at least five but no more than ten items. Rarely will they ever be sold all in the same day unless it happens to be some popular item that people want for the holiday season. Also, check for other online E-Commerce sites, or try online classifieds such as Craigslist.

Increase your sales
When you’ve made enough feedback so you don’t have any restrictions with your PayPal account, that’s when you can go ahead and increase the number of items that you list. Keep in mind that if they don’t sell, you don’t have to pay the listing price. If the buyer commits to buying but doesn’t pay immediately make sure you stay professional and remind the customer that if they don’t pay, you have no choice but to re-list the item. If you’re professional, you usually can get them to buy it and they’ll still end up leaving positive feedback. It also leaves your company with a good name in how you’ve handled things professionally and not have been nasty about it. Sometimes buyers can forget that they’ve committed to buying something, especially if they don’t stay on eBay that much.

The benefits to having your E-commerce business include working on your own time, making a great income and being in charge of what you make. If you can follow the simple steps listed above, you can start selling products in an online marketplace and start being in control of your own time and finances. Good luck and have fun!

Do you sell on eBay, Amazon, Play.com or even all three and more?

Struggling to cope with demand?

Looking for extra storage space?

Need to automate your stock management systems?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions then you may want to think about outsourcing to a fulfilment company.

As your business grows, so do your physical / system requirements and if those requirements aren’t met then you will lose control and your business will struggle and eventually fail.

One of the common issues many small businesses face as they start to grow is keeping up with the increasing demand of their customers. Starting off as sending out 8 or 9 parcels a week via the local post office may well triple in just a matter of months. Despatching goods in time, continuing to pack them to the same high standards and dealing with returns and enquiries can soon become a bridge too far. With extra storage space to also consider, finding a company to store your goods to in a secure and clean environment is of vital importance. Fulfilment companies can assist with most aspects of selling online including:

Pick and Pack

From 10 orders to 1000 orders per day or 1 to 10,000 SKU’s, order fulfilment companies can cater for most types of seller. Warehouse staff are trained to deal with most types of products from small, low value fragile items to large high value bulky goods. Fulfilment warehouses invest in the latest technology and have pre-planned layouts and picking strategies. This ensures that accuracy is high and deadlines are met with most offering a minimum 3PM cut off for same day despatch. Once the goods are picked, they are packed securely to customer’s specification. Some companies also provide a bespoke gift-wrapping service, which is ideal for fashion businesses or novelty goods companies. Orders are despatched according to their pre-stated delivery method and have unique consignment ID’s to enable full traceability right up the point of delivery. Having an outsourced fulfilment partner provides a real professional edge to your business that will set you apart from your competitors.

Storage

A lack of storage space and security is a major concern for lots of online sellers. Not only is it important to have enough space to house your goods, but they also need to be in the correct conditions and secure. Fulfilment companies provide many different types of storage, each for their varying stock sizes. Bin Storage is suited to smaller components, whilst shelving type storage is ideal for larger item and also companies seeking secure document storage. Racked storage accommodates larger pallet quantities whilst bulk storage enables heavy stock to be stacked, making the most of the square footage allocated. Stock can either be stored in a Single-User warehouse (dedicated facilities for large Blue Chip companies) or a Multi-User warehouse.

Outsourced warehouse storage can also cater for peak demand and can often provide Customs warehousing for Bonded Goods for the storage of dutiable goods. Whatever your storage requirements, fulfilment companies have the space and conditions to accommodate this so you can rest assured that your goods are being looked after in the best possible way.

Stock Management

As your stock grows, you will need a more sophisticated and accurate system to control your stock. Fulfilment companies provide stock rotation, status and batch control, cyclical counting and year-end stock takes. These procedures ensure that you have a real-time angle on your stock balances.

Delivery

Most fulfilment companies can also offer a variety of delivery methods, from UK Next Day and Timed Deliveries to Global services and Same Day Couriers. Providing your customers with a variety of delivery options is important to the success and growth of your business. You no longer need to worry about making your way to the Post Office or queuing up to post out your goods, nor do you need to be concerned about whether or not your goods will get to a customer on time. Outsourcing also allows you tap into the preferential buying rates fulfilment companies receive and can often result in savings on your delivery costs.

In Summarising

Outsourcing to an order fulfilment company can prove an invaluable step for a growing business. Once a business has reached a ‘critical point’ when they know they need to adapt to accommodate new growth, outsourcing is a fantastic solution. With the right partner on board it provides security, efficiency, flexibility and above all it can improve the bottom line profitability.

Jo Cogan is a creative designer hailing from the UK with experience in digital, print and illustration. Her clients range from schools and restaurants to music companies and fashion designers. She currently works for an Ecommerce agency who design, build, market and host websites using the Magento platform. Her role at the company includes creating the look and feel of websites, branding, marketing and copywriting.

One thing that goes without saying in today’s business world, is that regardless of the nature of your home based business, a website is an absolute MUST. Whether you have a product or service to sell, whether local or global, your business will go nowhere fast if you don’t have an online presence. If you need internet marketing help, you’ve landed on the right article. I’ll give you some home based business marketing ideas that will help you promote your business successfully.

The first step is choosing a domain name and getting it registered. You can build your own website (if you have the time) and host it yourself or you can have everything done by another company (if you have the money). Either way, you have many options and tools at your disposal that can align with your business plan and budget. Also note that you can still start your own home based business even if you don’t have a product or service to sell. There are thousands of individuals and companies that have products you can sell for them while earning a commission, called affiliate marketing.

Of the many business marketing strategies known to man, internet marketing is, hands down, the best strategy to use for promoting a home based business as it is the cheapest method and has the potential for reaching millions of people all over the globe. Driving traffic to your site through online resources is like killing two birds with one stone. You can tackle print advertising by writing articles and publishing them to directories and ezines and by submitting ads to the many available (and most of them free) classified ad sites. Online media advertising encompasses writing press releases and distributing them to press release sites. One of the biggest and most popular online advertising trends today is via social media advertising through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn where you build relationships with your customers. Forums and communities are also great ways to build relationships which helps promote your home based business in the long run. Simply Google your market or industry with the word ‘forum’ or ‘community’ behind it and search for one or two that seem to be the best fit for you.

All of these methods of online advertising contribute to search engine optimization (SEO), which is to say improving your online visibility and escalating in the search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing. Your goal is to claim the #1 spot in the organic search results (the results on the left, not the right side which are paid ads). This is where your traffic will come from. If you are 800 in the list of search results, no one is ever going to see your site because very few people have the time or patience to scroll through 800 search results. Research shows that people typically won’t even scroll past 4 or 5 search results, let alone 800.

Can you grasp the importance of internet marketing for any business? If you are new to the internet marketing phenomenon and don’t know exactly where to start, there are many great programs or systems online that walk you through every aspect of marketing your online business. A lot of these systems were created by online entrepreneurs who have spent thousands of their own dollars trying to figure it all out over the years and finally DID. Their sacrifices have made it easier for newbies to become successful at their own online home based business. If you are new to running your own home based business, I recommend you find a great system (do your research, read reviews, ask questions in forums) and start marketing your home business from there. Don’t waste the time and money that so many of us have in going it alone, without a proven system, as it will just set you back further and hinder your progress.