Mail Order - Part III

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1) Sell more of your own products/services. Your own products/services are generally the most profitable, but they can take a considerable amount of time to research and develop (or otherwise acquire). To build a related line rapidly, you can begin by selling only one or a few offers of your own, along with items produced by others.

2) Sell other people's products which you have drop shipped. How does drop shipping work? The dealer obtains prepaid orders for products through advertising, free publicity or other promotional methods, and then sends the orders (including payment, and usually a shipping label showing the dealer as the sender) to the drop shipper that stocks inventory. The drop shipper then drop ships the products directly from his inventory to the customers of the dealer. The difference between the full price and the dealer's discount price (usually around 40-50% off retail) minus any other charges such as shipping, is the dealer's profit.

The profit on drop shipped items is less than you get with your own products, but it's profit nevertheless, which you won't get if you don't offer such related items.

3) Sell other people's products which you carry as inventory. Buying other people's products in quantity to stock as inventory will generally give you greater discounts than drop shipping - and thus greater profits - but inventory investment ties up capital that may be better used elsewhere, not to mention the risk of stocking too little or too much inventory. This being the case, when should you consider stocking inventory of products produced by others?

1) When it cannot first be tested by drop shipping. Some companies simply don't offer drop shipping services.

2) After a drop shipped product has proven to be a good seller for you, in order to take advantage of greater discounts that may be available, and the ability to give your customers faster service.

Persist at building your product line, both with your offers, and those of others. As your catalog grows and improves, your profits will increase accordingly.

* Take advantage of a "free ride" to sell more to customers whenever possible. As you fill orders, include catalogs, flyers, or other inserts promoting related offers in the envelope or package. As long as you stay within the same weight classification, there is no extra postal or shipping expense.

* If your mailings are frequent and sizable enough to warrant it, bulk mail can also be used to reduce your postage costs, allowing you to send even more marketing materials. Check with your local post office for the latest information on bulk mail.

Everyone has the same 24 hours to use each day. At the end of a given day, some have made significant progress toward their important goals, and others have little or nothing to show for it. It all boils down to the way each one manages their time. This, of course, applies to you, your mail order business, and in fact, to every facet of your life. It's all up to you; You can approach the tasks you need or want to get done in a time-efficient, organized, and more productive manner, or you can approach them haphazardly . . . and suffer accordingly.

If you really want to get maximum benefit from the limited time you have to get things done in your mail order business, or any other area of life, you simply must become a master of time management . . . period. There's no way around it. Not that it's that difficult, because it's not. It's just a matter of scrupulously following proven time management principles, such as:

* Setting your goals;
* Keeping a prioritized To-Do List and using it constantly;
* Always focusing on higher-priority tasks before lower- priority ones;
* Streamlining your routine activities;
* Eliminating as many non-essential tasks as possible.

When you manage your time well, you'll achieve more, and you'll look back on your work with satisfaction that you got the most important things done, instead of looking back with regret.

Be a creative imitator. Don't copy others too closely or copy something that can cause problems for you. Aim to refine and improve on the ideas you glean from others. Who knows, you may even come up with something better!

You've just read some tips on overcoming mail order pitfalls, which could take you considerable time and money to learn from the "school of hard knocks." Now you don't have to make the same mistakes!