Selling online from home

So you’ve decided to start your own online store from home… this isn’t an easy task, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t become a success. I’ve personally assisted over 50 friends to start their own online stores and work from home, most of them are still online and selling every day. Based on my own experience either with my own stores and those built for friends and customers, I’ll provide some tips that will help you start your online store and make it a success.

Tip 1. Don’t think that because you’re working at home there aren’t any more schedules. As a matter of fact, working in your own online store can be more time consuming than having a regular job. Most online store owners spend close to 12 hours a day promoting, adding products, tracking shipments and managing their stores.

Tip 2. Don’t rely on a home phone line or a mobile phone. Having a kid or maid answering a phone that is published as your store’s contact phone number will scare 90% of your potential customers away.  Getting a voice mail with a recording from a mobile operator has the same effect. The explanaiton is pretty simple… a new customer wants to be able to trust your store/company. The easy solution: Get a VoIP based line with a fancy DID (Direct Inward Dial – that’s a phone number) if you can afford a toll-free it’ll be way better. Set up your VoIP line to direct callers to your voicemail if there’s no one to answer or if the line is busy, however keep an eye on your voice mail at all times so that you can return calls in a timely manner.

Tip 3. Get a P.O. box that doesn’t look like one. There are literally thousands of companies that will lease something similar to a P.O. Box but that use fancier names like “suite” or “office”, something like “Broadway St. 315 Suite 912″, even though it’s a P.O. Box, it will bring more confidence to your customers, as it looks like a “real office in a business address/building”. Those companies will then forward all your incoming mail to your home address.

Tip 4. Even though you are working at home, try to set an area that is dedicated to your work, it can be a room, a studio or even a corner of your table, but try to use that space for work-related things only. That way, if you need to write something down on a post-it, you can stick it there and it will still be there tomorrow for you to pick up where you left off the day before. If you have kids at home, instruct them to never touch anything in your work space.

Tip 5. Try to avoid house-typical noises. That means, if you’re on the phone with a customer, don’t leave a TV set, stereo, blender, mixer, vacuum nor any other household appliace on. If possible, try to set your working space in a noise free area of your home.

Tip 6. Keep your store’s finances separate from your home expenses. In order to run a successful business (not only an online store) you have to be very organized as to how you run your finances. It looks so easy to just use money from your online sales to pay the rent or to buy groceries, however there’ll be a time when you have to re-stock your store, pay advertising or maybe hire someone else and you have to make sure that you’ll have funds to pay. At the end of the month, see how much profit you had from your online sales, see how much you’ll be needing the next month and then move your earnings to your house budget.

Tip 7. Promote your store at all times. Include the URL to your store in your e-mail signature, let all your friends know about it (even if they are your close neighbors, you never know when they’ll get online just to satisfy their curiosity or when they’ll refer some new customers to you), print a sticker with your URL and stick it to your car’s bumper, print a couple T-shirts with your URL and wear them as often as possible (out of home), write down your URL when leaving a note to someone, etc. There’s no such thing as “enough promotion”. The more people know about your online store, the more customers you’ll get.

Tip 8. Learn about SEO or hire a SEO consultant’s services. SEO (search engine optimization) is one of the most effective ways to promote your online store, if you’ll be selling men’s shoes, you’ll want your website to show up in the first results when someone googles “leather boots”. Keep in mind that close to 85% of all internet web traffic starts at search engines.

Tip 9. Be patient. Some people think that they’ll start selling the minute they publish their websites, that never happens. You’ll have to work hard for users to start visiting your site, and even after that, you’ll have to spend more time turning your visitors into customers.

Tip 10. Treat every customer as if you had more customers waiting in line. When you’re starting, it’s easy to become discouraged and pay less atention to customer service. Customer service is a must and you should answer most questions in a timely manner. Even if you’re only getting 3 emails a week, each one has to be replied on time. Keep in mind that if you’re only getting a few customers you can’t risk losing them.

Tip 11. Get a live chat, forget about automated ones. People love live chats, they allow visitors to ask all their questions regarding your products or services and get an answer or solution in real time. It also removes the “tech-only” skin of your online store and brings a “there are humans behind” feel. However there are some companies that sell automated chats, where a script tries to figure out what the customer is asking by running some simplistic “artifical intelligence” routines (they are more like term matching) and try to provide the best answer. Installing one of such automated chats is like calling someone who has a voicemail recording that just repeats “hello, hello, I can’t hear you, hello”, it makes you feel like a fool, and I’m sure you don’t want your potential customers to feel that way.

Follow these simple tips and you’re on your way to a successful online store! (plus a lot of hard work, of course).