Sales on Demand Show

As soon as this episode launches, your host will be disappearing into the mountain for 10 days of amazingness, hiking, sleeping outdoors, canoeing, singing, and being totally dirty and unshowered, but not caring a tiny bit about any of it!

I couldn't bear to leave you without a weekly episode, so here it is!  

Hope you all had a great summer!

A lot of new sellers dive right into their businesses, and are very concerned with doing things properly and legally.  We all know that sales tax is a thing, since we seem to pay it on every purchase, but we've never been on the "collection" end of that equation.  Today, I've sorted through pages of articles to bring you the straight skinny on how to deal with sales taxes in both the US and Canada.

The bottom line:  Until you are making over $30,000 in sales to Canadians, or $100,000+ in sales per year in the US, sales tax is not something you need to worry about.  If you are already registered, then go ahead and file for whatever states you are registered for sales tax, but don't rush out and start paying thousands of dollars to find out if you need to pay a couple dollars of tax.  

Taxjar.com - The best resource I've seen for dealing with sales taxes in the US

A great article about sales taxes

More info about sales tax for Canadians selling to the US

Get a Canadian GST number here

I have a goal for my business:  I want to get to $1,000,000 in sales at some point!  I'm nowhere near that goal yet, but I've realized over time that there are 5 phases that every Print on Demand business goes through, each with it's own set of challenges.

Phase 1 - Open accounts, learn, launch products, get a few sales

Phase 2 - Continue scaling, learning, and developing products, send winners for FBA, expand to new platforms.

Phase 3 - Create a team, develop processes.  Create legal corporation, banking, Trademarks etc.

Phase 4 - Hard scaling to $1,000,000 in sales per year, building customer list and refining team.

Phase 5 - Sell, or continue to scale.

Many entrepreneurs have been able to go to $1,000,000 in sales, and then sold out, earning as much as $500,000 from selling, or even more if their business has excellent processes and long term stability.

Even if you are still a new seller, you should begin to visualize the potential of your business, and start setting goals that will get you there!

In this episode, I talk about how incorporation can move your business into the Phase 3 zone, and begin to scale up to 7 figures in sales.

Incorporate online (costs about $500) - www.ownr.co

Join me on the Low Hanging System training here!

Starting a Print on Demand business is a cheap type of business, but even the modest costs involved can be more than some people can afford.  If what's holding you back from success is a lack of funds to open an Amazon account, list on Etsy, or fulfill orders, there are a lot of work from home things you can do that are generally easy to get started doing, and will help "fill in the gaps" financially speaking.  Almost all of these are very much like traditional jobs, where you trade your time for money, but they are all things that can be done from home, instead of driving to a job like everyone else.

1. Freelancing on Fiverr with writing, translation, or proofreading.  Fiverr is a very flexible freelance site, but there are others.  Check out this article for a hundred more: https://moneypantry.com/get-paid-to-write/.

2. Amazon Customer Service Rep - Many of these positions are home based, and require only a computer with internet to perform the work. Find out more here: https://www.amazon.jobs/en/locations/virtual-locations.

3. Teaching English to kids online - VIPKids is a site that can match you to children overseas, mainly in China who will learn to speak and write English from YOU!  Another site with the same concept is Magic Ears. The hourly rates are around $20-26 per hour, but the work is not guaranteed.

4. Shopify Customer Guru - Shopify is the world's Premiere ecommerce platform with millions of different sites, and they have a number of remote positions, some of which do not require a lot of experience.  Check out this link for more details: https://www.shopify.com/careers/specialties/support

5. Medical Coding - I don't have a clue what this is, but usually anything to do with the medical industry is highly sought after, with lots of opportunity across the US.  Learn more here: https://www.verywellhealth.com/work-from-home-as-a-medical-coder-4144780

6. Virtual Assistant - A VA is a person who performs work for a business from a virtual location.  Usually these jobs are not very high paying, but they are quite easy to get, and it is usually extremely flexible.  Upwork is a good place to get started.

7. Teaching online is a growing trend, and may someday even replace colleges and universities.  Find out more at www.takelessons.com.

8. Remote IT work - This type of position tends to be much more like a regular job, with hours of work and specific prerequisite skills, but a degree is not generally required.  The ability to code, manage databases, or develop websites is massively in demand, and many positions are offered remotely.  Many major corporations offer these positions, usually found on their careers page.

9. Freelancing with photo or image manipulation, or general design work.  Upwork, and Fiverr are leaders for this type of work, but they are not the only places.  Even Shopify has information for people looking for work in Graphic Design: https://www.shopify.com/partners/jobs/graphic-design?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxqWF_dbJ4wIVif5kCh3PHQvSEAAYBCAAEgJYnfD_BwE

10. Do your regular job...at home!  Office work is almost all computer based these days, and much of it can be done from home.  Many people have simply asked their company if they can work remotely, and found that the answer was yes!  The obvious benefits include a shorter workday (hopefully), more comfortable surroundings, flexible hours, and no more commute.  

There are hundreds more ideas like the ones here, but this should get you started.  Your long term goal might be to have a regular job, and run your business as a part time side hustle, and one of these ideas might be a good fit for that.

Check out more at www.salesondemandshow.com!

I'm back!  After 7 delightful days cavorting around in the mountains, I have returned to the flat prairies, and I've got a punchy episode ready for you.  Hopefully, most of you are making the best you can of the warmish summer months, getting some exercise, and appreciating the outdoors in all of their glory!

A good chess player is always thinking several moves ahead, and a good Print on Demand seller is always plotting the next holidays.  While there are indeed a few smaller holidays between here and December, the vast bulk of potential sales are going to be at Christmas, and you should be prepping for those right now!

Join me today as I discuss how to get ready for the inevitable rush, and what to expect from the craziest buying time of the year.

In this episode, I talk about the thing that has made me the MOST money of anything I've done online:  Fulfillment by Amazon.  I can't say anything else, just have a listen!

The Sales on Demand show has reached it's half-birthday!

It's a small milestone to be sure, but celebrating small milestones can help you focus on the progress, not the pain.

In today's episode, I lament some of the challenges of getting enough stock into Amazon.  Things don't always go perfectly well, and more often than not, you will notice that you have left "money on the table" by not acting quickly enough, or perhaps you didn't know which items would sell before the deadline.  Nevertheless, I still have regular progress happening, and hopefully you do as well.

I also talk about how to manage your time during the slower summer months, because it is tempting to think that Christmas is so far away that it really doesn't matter, but that's completely backwards.  What you do during the slow summer months can pay off HUGELY when Christmas arrives!  Print on Demand is a chess game, and you must be planning your moves well in advance if you want to win BIG.

As ever, our sponsor is the Low Hanging System, the training program that got me started in this whole thing.  

I've been hearing a lot from new sellers, those with a few months of experience, and I also have the great priviledge to speak with the REALLY top guys from time to time.  Some of them even know that I exist!

The number one thing that holds back the new sellers is not the motivation, discipline, or a lack of effort.  Just like in the real world, business owners don't get paid for effort.  You can slave away in front of your computer, making hundreds or thousands of designs, and make just a few sales, while someone else can put out a hundred designs, and make 80 sales a DAY.

The difference?  The successful sellers don't make products that THEY think will sell.  Instead, they look at the data that's already available, and they make designs that people are already looking for.  Hitting a trend at the right moment can produce massive, and amazing results!

In this episode, I talk about research skills, and I share some insanely valuable tips to help you find those trending gems.

As always, I highly recommend taking your training to the next level with the Low Hanging System.  Join up, and you get a year of free integration with Amazon, Etsy, and Ebay, plus access to the Facebook group where we are constantly sharing tips, and helping new sellers with their business.

Click to join here!

"The trend is your friend"

While I'm pretty sure that this statement was coined in reference to buying and selling stocks, it's a completely true axiom that applies to selling products online.

I have focussed a lot of my time this year to hunting down good "evergreen" products to sell.  I have quite a few slow, but steady sellers that just keep plinking the coins in my bank account, but I can't deny that I've been leaving money on the table by not hunting down more trends.  

Selling with Facebook paid traffic is a tough nut to crack, but there's a little bit of a "cheat" code, when you launch a product that is tailor-made for a trending event, such as, Father's Day, Mother's Day, graduation, and current events.  Selling a gift designed for Dad's becomes much easier when people are actually shopping for a gift!  

In today's episode, which was recorded several days prior to the posting of it, I'm talking about how to actually find these trending ideas, and then, how to launch some simple ads to capitalize on the trend.  

You've got about a week or so before the shipping deadline for Father's Day, so why not take some action today, and lauch an ad on Facebook?

No business owner is an island, and if you are like me, and you want to really make your business hit the "big time", you eventually run out of time and energy to manage all of the tasks that need to be done.  

In today's episode, I talk about the importance of outsourcing, and how it can not just double, but in most cases, triple your overall productivity, which can have a massive impact on your business!

Finding a freelancer to do work for you is much easier than you ever thought, and I guide you through the steps right here in this brief 35 minute podcast episode.

You can find more training with the Low Hanging System, which is how I built this business from nothing, and now I'm set to have my first 6 figure year.

Click here to see more about this training course (affiliate link)