In keeping with the tone of motivation, there are several motivational speakers that make their living addressing corporate functions, sales teams, and individual business owners. as I mentioned in Part 1 of this topic Zig Ziglar is the Grand Daddy of all motivational speakers. I have personally sat and heard this man speak to a packed Georgia Dome ( 80,000 people) in and to 12,000 strong at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan . Zig Ziglar will fire you up in such a way that you wonder why you haven't hit your goals already. His soothing voice will relax you so much that you might be like me and nod off once in a while.
In addition to Zig Ziglar there is another motivational speaker that I'd like to introduce to you. His name is Les Brown. Here is Les Brown's acheivements. Les Brown is another motivational speaker that you need to have in your arsonal. Les Brown often talks about being hungry! No not hungry as in I need food but hungry as in hungry to capitalize on oppertunity. Isn't that how you feel when you are building your business wheather it be an online website or pruchasing your first franchise? You gotta be hun greeeeeeeeee! hungry to learn everything that there is to learn about what it is that you want to do. There is no other way to put it than this:
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Monday, July 28, 2008
Motivation- The Breakfast of Champions Part 1- Kaboodle Gifts
Raise you hand if you have ever been fired up when you started a project only to can it days after you have started. Nice to meet you, you are in good company!
Motivation is a key to anything that you do. Owning your own business creates its own motivation in itself. But what do you do when your tank runs dry? What gets you re-fired up to complete your project? How do you keep the fire burning when everything seems to be going south?
Motivational speakers and events make up a huge market in todays business world. The king of motivational speakers is Zig Ziglar. If you ever get a chance to hear this man speak it is well worth your time and money.
Zig Ziglar has brought his message to thousands of business people over the years that he has been speaking. Maybe millions of business people might be more accurate. Here is a sample of his work:
Motivation is a key to anything that you do. Owning your own business creates its own motivation in itself. But what do you do when your tank runs dry? What gets you re-fired up to complete your project? How do you keep the fire burning when everything seems to be going south?
Motivational speakers and events make up a huge market in todays business world. The king of motivational speakers is Zig Ziglar. If you ever get a chance to hear this man speak it is well worth your time and money.
Zig Ziglar has brought his message to thousands of business people over the years that he has been speaking. Maybe millions of business people might be more accurate. Here is a sample of his work:
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Blog Tips and Tricks- Kaboodle Gifts
Have you ever heard of the saying that there is always someone that is smarter and better than you at what you do? That's a good thing, don't get me wrong. That is exactly how you learn new things. Think about it for a minute. How did you learn to first ride a bike? Drive a car? Write a check? You had to be shown, and once you were shown you began to practice to get better. The better you got the more confident you became.
Building a business or anything else all started the same way. You were shown a method that worked, you tried that method over and over and once you became confident in it you made it your own.
I found a bunch of blog tips and tricks that will do exactly what I have just talked about. While the posts are mainly for those that use blogger.com Peter's header says that most things can be adapted for other blogs. So here you go and enjoy!
I like it so much and there is so much information there that I'm going to list it under Blogs of interest on our side bar.
Building a business or anything else all started the same way. You were shown a method that worked, you tried that method over and over and once you became confident in it you made it your own.
I found a bunch of blog tips and tricks that will do exactly what I have just talked about. While the posts are mainly for those that use blogger.com Peter's header says that most things can be adapted for other blogs. So here you go and enjoy!
I like it so much and there is so much information there that I'm going to list it under Blogs of interest on our side bar.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Deadliest Catch vs. Your eCommerse Website- Kaboodle Gifts
Okay I admit this is a bit off topic for the title of the Blog. Even though that may be, there are still several comparisons that can be made. If you are unfamiliar with the Deadliest Catch it is a television series about crab fisherman in the Bearing Sea of Alaska during King crab and Opilio crab season. Here is a short video of what kinds of obstacles that they face:
Now that you have taken a peek at the You Tube video lets talk about the comparisons:
OBSTACLES:
Can you imagine trying to do a job in 20,30, or 40 foot seas? It almost seems to be overwhelming. Just like when you first made the decision to go into business for yourself. Sure the decision was easy, but little did you know what kinds of seas you would have to weather. Like for instance how do I register my business name with the local, state, and federal governments? Who do I pick for my accountant? Do I need an attourney? What do I name my website? How do I register my website and with whom? Do I file as a DBA, LLC,or Corporation?
Now lets look at the guys from Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch and some of their obstacles; five guys working on a pitching and listing deck, working in temperatures that get as low as 40 degrees below zero, working 20 hours straight and often more, dealing with rogue waves, often catching little on no crab,having to invest long hours dialing in the crab.
TEAM WORK:
Often times when you own your own business you have to wear the many hats that go along with that business. Even more so because there are no employees involved. Not only are you the owner but you are the department head for sales, marketing, customer service , shipping and receiving, repairs, and the production manager. the nice thing about being your own boss is that you don't have to go through the chain of command to make major decisions, but then again every decision you make is gut wrenching. You have to make all things work because you are the team.
For the guys of Discovery's Deadliest Catch team work is everything. Each member of the crew has a job to do be it operating the launcher, block, crane or the greenhorn that makes the bait. When something goes wrong and someone gets hurt as is often the case the other team members need to pick the pace up and fill in for the injured crew member. Even though each crew member has his job they still need to know all of the jobs to make the team gel together.
GOAL ORIENTED:
My definition of the word goal is nothing more than a dream with a date attached to it. You can't measure any aspect of your business if you don't have goals set. Setting down i front of your computer with a list of goals to complete not only lets you measure your success in your business but also shows you how far along you have come with your business. When you set your goals they need to be realistic goals. If you want to sell $2000.00 worth of product for a week then you need to ask yourself what you need to do to achieve that goal. If you want to add 100 new names to your newsletter database then you have to ask yourself how do I achieve that. You really end up talking to yourself a lot and answering yourself when you own your business.
Goals don't have to big. They can be small goals. For the guys on the Bearing Sea often their goal is to come back homes to the families in one piece, not have any accidents aboard ship, fill thier holds with crab. What may seem like simple goals to one person are huge goals to another. The point being is that by setting your goals wheather they are short term or long term you have something to chase. If you set your goals for the moon but miss you will still land amongst the stars.
REWARDS:
The guys on the fishing vessels of The Deadliest Catch reward themselves for the job that they do. When you set goals you need to reward yourself for achieving those goals. One of the major goals on a crab boat is to fill their quota. Often times these boats will have a King Crab season that brings in one million pounds of crab. The monetary reward for a crew member can be $50,000. Say they set a goal of one million pounds and now they have been rewarded for their efforts in achieving that goal. Another example of being rewarded a goal they set at sea is setting a string of pots. The crew members know that once the sting is set, which often takes 20 hours they will be rewarded with a 3 hour nap.
When you are the owner of your business you need to do the same, reward yourself for achieving your goals. This might mean a monetary reward, this might mean sleep after you have worked 12,16, or 20 hours. This might mean eating your favorite meal after selling $1000.00 of product. Just as your goals are yours to set so are your rewards.
PERSEVERANCE:
This is key to anything that you do in life. If you own your own business, work for someone else, or have had a heart attack. YOU NEED TO PERSEVERE! In the online world there are thousands of sites that go up and then come down on a constant basis. You are doing business in a fluid environment that is constantly changing. The kids need to go to soccer games, you are busy coding your site, your spouse had a bad day at work and wants to vent. Basically the car is sick and the wife wont start! Persevere! There is nothing that you can't achieve if you set your mind to it.
Perseverance for a crab boat captain is making sure that they get through the season to do it all over again. Perserverance is getting through the 40 foot seas and pulling pots that weigh 1000 pounds. Perserverance is pulling the crew member out of the Bearing Sea after he got caught in the rigging that pulled him overboard.
HAVING FUN:
There is no point in doing anything if you can't have fun at it while you are doing it. This applies not only to owning your own business and fishing in the bearing sea but to anything that you do. One way the captains from Dutch Harbor have fun is to pull pranks on one another. Usually this involves hoisting flour bags that explode when being pulled though the block. This season was different what the captains thought were pots full of crab turned out to be Port-O-Potties and pick up trucks. Now can you imagine this, thinking that you have a full pot of crab to sort but finding out that you have a 3/4 ton pick up truck that you have to bring on board. Yeah your right, no sense of humor there.
Conclusion:
It doesn't matter what you do in life. It all comes down to having a core set of skills for each vocation. Hopefully the comparisons made here have shed that light and given a bit of inspiration to those that may feel a bit overwhelmed.
Now that you have taken a peek at the You Tube video lets talk about the comparisons:
OBSTACLES:
Can you imagine trying to do a job in 20,30, or 40 foot seas? It almost seems to be overwhelming. Just like when you first made the decision to go into business for yourself. Sure the decision was easy, but little did you know what kinds of seas you would have to weather. Like for instance how do I register my business name with the local, state, and federal governments? Who do I pick for my accountant? Do I need an attourney? What do I name my website? How do I register my website and with whom? Do I file as a DBA, LLC,or Corporation?
Now lets look at the guys from Discovery Channel's Deadliest Catch and some of their obstacles; five guys working on a pitching and listing deck, working in temperatures that get as low as 40 degrees below zero, working 20 hours straight and often more, dealing with rogue waves, often catching little on no crab,having to invest long hours dialing in the crab.
TEAM WORK:
Often times when you own your own business you have to wear the many hats that go along with that business. Even more so because there are no employees involved. Not only are you the owner but you are the department head for sales, marketing, customer service , shipping and receiving, repairs, and the production manager. the nice thing about being your own boss is that you don't have to go through the chain of command to make major decisions, but then again every decision you make is gut wrenching. You have to make all things work because you are the team.
For the guys of Discovery's Deadliest Catch team work is everything. Each member of the crew has a job to do be it operating the launcher, block, crane or the greenhorn that makes the bait. When something goes wrong and someone gets hurt as is often the case the other team members need to pick the pace up and fill in for the injured crew member. Even though each crew member has his job they still need to know all of the jobs to make the team gel together.
GOAL ORIENTED:
My definition of the word goal is nothing more than a dream with a date attached to it. You can't measure any aspect of your business if you don't have goals set. Setting down i front of your computer with a list of goals to complete not only lets you measure your success in your business but also shows you how far along you have come with your business. When you set your goals they need to be realistic goals. If you want to sell $2000.00 worth of product for a week then you need to ask yourself what you need to do to achieve that goal. If you want to add 100 new names to your newsletter database then you have to ask yourself how do I achieve that. You really end up talking to yourself a lot and answering yourself when you own your business.
Goals don't have to big. They can be small goals. For the guys on the Bearing Sea often their goal is to come back homes to the families in one piece, not have any accidents aboard ship, fill thier holds with crab. What may seem like simple goals to one person are huge goals to another. The point being is that by setting your goals wheather they are short term or long term you have something to chase. If you set your goals for the moon but miss you will still land amongst the stars.
REWARDS:
The guys on the fishing vessels of The Deadliest Catch reward themselves for the job that they do. When you set goals you need to reward yourself for achieving those goals. One of the major goals on a crab boat is to fill their quota. Often times these boats will have a King Crab season that brings in one million pounds of crab. The monetary reward for a crew member can be $50,000. Say they set a goal of one million pounds and now they have been rewarded for their efforts in achieving that goal. Another example of being rewarded a goal they set at sea is setting a string of pots. The crew members know that once the sting is set, which often takes 20 hours they will be rewarded with a 3 hour nap.
When you are the owner of your business you need to do the same, reward yourself for achieving your goals. This might mean a monetary reward, this might mean sleep after you have worked 12,16, or 20 hours. This might mean eating your favorite meal after selling $1000.00 of product. Just as your goals are yours to set so are your rewards.
PERSEVERANCE:
This is key to anything that you do in life. If you own your own business, work for someone else, or have had a heart attack. YOU NEED TO PERSEVERE! In the online world there are thousands of sites that go up and then come down on a constant basis. You are doing business in a fluid environment that is constantly changing. The kids need to go to soccer games, you are busy coding your site, your spouse had a bad day at work and wants to vent. Basically the car is sick and the wife wont start! Persevere! There is nothing that you can't achieve if you set your mind to it.
Perseverance for a crab boat captain is making sure that they get through the season to do it all over again. Perserverance is getting through the 40 foot seas and pulling pots that weigh 1000 pounds. Perserverance is pulling the crew member out of the Bearing Sea after he got caught in the rigging that pulled him overboard.
HAVING FUN:
There is no point in doing anything if you can't have fun at it while you are doing it. This applies not only to owning your own business and fishing in the bearing sea but to anything that you do. One way the captains from Dutch Harbor have fun is to pull pranks on one another. Usually this involves hoisting flour bags that explode when being pulled though the block. This season was different what the captains thought were pots full of crab turned out to be Port-O-Potties and pick up trucks. Now can you imagine this, thinking that you have a full pot of crab to sort but finding out that you have a 3/4 ton pick up truck that you have to bring on board. Yeah your right, no sense of humor there.
Conclusion:
It doesn't matter what you do in life. It all comes down to having a core set of skills for each vocation. Hopefully the comparisons made here have shed that light and given a bit of inspiration to those that may feel a bit overwhelmed.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Creative Shop Talk Forum- Kaboodle Gifts
Once you have your product(s) that you want to sell online you need a venue to accomplish that. That venue might be eBay, Amazon, eCrater, or a whole host of other sites. How do you know which site would be a good choice for you? The simple answer is research. Making a list of your goals and expectations along with your strengths and weakness will help you weed out different selling venues that you come across in your search for the right place for your products.
If you have the desire to tackle the many shopping carts that you can customize you might want to look into Zen Cart, Candy Press, or OS Commerce to mention a few.
If you take on the challenge of selling online there is one forum that is a must for you. I'm talking about Creative Shop Talk. If you are new to this forum simply create a free account to access all of the information inside. When you come to the home page of this forum you will see the following statement:
"We are three things in one, Support, Resources and Promotions to your online E-commerce site. CST is a peer to peer group of online business owners who run their own website stores and come together to share their experiences and support with each other."
Listed below are some of the threads that make this such a great place to research and grow your business:
CST MEMBERS CORNER:
If you have the desire to tackle the many shopping carts that you can customize you might want to look into Zen Cart, Candy Press, or OS Commerce to mention a few.
If you take on the challenge of selling online there is one forum that is a must for you. I'm talking about Creative Shop Talk. If you are new to this forum simply create a free account to access all of the information inside. When you come to the home page of this forum you will see the following statement:
"We are three things in one, Support, Resources and Promotions to your online E-commerce site. CST is a peer to peer group of online business owners who run their own website stores and come together to share their experiences and support with each other."
Listed below are some of the threads that make this such a great place to research and grow your business:
CST MEMBERS CORNER:
- CST Welcomes Our New Members
- Seller Support
- Site Review
- Members Offering Free Mentoring
LET'S TALK ABOUT OUR SHOPPING CARTS:
- Your Business Plan
- What To Think About When Shopping For A Shopping Cart
- Hosting And Domain Names
- Candy Press ASP Carts
- Zen Carts
- Other ASP Carts
- Other PHP Carts
PHOTOS AND IMAGES:
- Logos And Banners
- Photo Image Software
- Photo Tips And Cameras
These are just a few of the many Topics that can be found at the Forum. The nice thing about it is even though you may not have one of those carts that require all the programming you can still get some great advise for the cart that you do have.
I printed out a three page explanation of what I could do to our site to better it in the Search Engines from one of the members, now tell me where are you going to find someone that doesn't have a financial interest in your business that will help you for free?
Our Old Blog- Kaboodle Gifts
Has there ever been a time in your life that you wished that you hadn't done something but did it any way only to regret later that you had done it? Well this is one of those times.
When we began our online presense in 2005-06 we also created a blog to compliment our business. We named it Kaboodle Gifts. During that time a family emergency came to face us that needed our undivided attention and we closed both the online store and blog not knowing if we would return to either of them. As time went on the family emergency came to the point that it is today... manageable.
My desire to return to building an online presence for our business began to increase to the point that I wanted to give it another go. Hind sight is 20/20 and if that is true then I'm blind! I returned to our business name because it was unique not to mention all the long hours we invested in coming up with the name. Do you realize how many name we tried to register?.....LOL
In doing so I created a monster. I had deleted the old blog but only to bring it back from the ashes when I started our new line of Personalized Products. You see with the SERPS the way that they were for our business name it brought back a lot of the links to the forefront from our old blog, the old blog that was deleted. Now you see links for our old blog but when you click on them you get no content.
So that brings me to write this post on our new blog. So if you find our old blog and are wondering why there isn't any content on it ...now you know.
When we began our online presense in 2005-06 we also created a blog to compliment our business. We named it Kaboodle Gifts. During that time a family emergency came to face us that needed our undivided attention and we closed both the online store and blog not knowing if we would return to either of them. As time went on the family emergency came to the point that it is today... manageable.
My desire to return to building an online presence for our business began to increase to the point that I wanted to give it another go. Hind sight is 20/20 and if that is true then I'm blind! I returned to our business name because it was unique not to mention all the long hours we invested in coming up with the name. Do you realize how many name we tried to register?.....LOL
In doing so I created a monster. I had deleted the old blog but only to bring it back from the ashes when I started our new line of Personalized Products. You see with the SERPS the way that they were for our business name it brought back a lot of the links to the forefront from our old blog, the old blog that was deleted. Now you see links for our old blog but when you click on them you get no content.
So that brings me to write this post on our new blog. So if you find our old blog and are wondering why there isn't any content on it ...now you know.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Kaboodle Gifts, LLC Announces New Personalized Product Line
How many of us are old enough to remember that Sears and Roebuck's started out selling watches? My guess is not many at all. Does anyone remember getting an insert in their Sears statement promoting Real Estate? My point being is this; in order to meet the ever changing buying habits of the consumer sector you need to be in a constant state of change. Looking at buying trends is a must and that is what we have accomplished at Kaboodle Gifts.
HISTORY OF KABOODLE GIFTS
When Kaboodle gifts was started in April 2001 our primary sales avenue was catalog distribution. With postage being economical back then for mailing catalogs we found that the majority of business came around the holidays. This was great for business but didn't give us the constant sales that we were looking for. The Return on Investment (ROI) was low because of the low turn around in sales.
Next we put our catalog online and moved away from catalog sales. This was a huge improvement in sales. We found ourselves with more sales at a lower investment which in turn meant a higher profit margin. We got complacent there because we were satisfied with the returns that we were receiving. Competition began escalating in our market and combined with that and a need to take care of family member our sales slumped to the point that we couldn't effectively take care of our business in the manor that we wanted. The decision to shut our website down came soon after.
With the announcement of our Press Release we have re-entered the market with glowing success.
FUTURE OF KABOODLE GIFTS:
The personalized gift market business is a multi- billion dollar market serving many niches including but not limited to birthday's, weddings, wedding parties, individuals, children and many more. We feel that we can capture a small piece of this market. What would you rather have; 100% of one person's business or 1% of 100 peoples' business? We are looking into several other products that we feel will compliment our core line of products and hope to bring them to market soon.
BOTTOM LINE:
The only thing that is constant is change. Change in product line, change in marketing and most important change in customer service! If you are willing to keep changing, adjusting your methods of doing business you will find out that you will have a solid base of returning customers that will in turn expand your business to great lengths.
*note* The comments or suggestions from Kaboodle Gifts are opinion based. The opinion(s) stated in this blog post have worked for Kaboodle Gifts, LLC and are not guaranteed to work for others.
HISTORY OF KABOODLE GIFTS
When Kaboodle gifts was started in April 2001 our primary sales avenue was catalog distribution. With postage being economical back then for mailing catalogs we found that the majority of business came around the holidays. This was great for business but didn't give us the constant sales that we were looking for. The Return on Investment (ROI) was low because of the low turn around in sales.
Next we put our catalog online and moved away from catalog sales. This was a huge improvement in sales. We found ourselves with more sales at a lower investment which in turn meant a higher profit margin. We got complacent there because we were satisfied with the returns that we were receiving. Competition began escalating in our market and combined with that and a need to take care of family member our sales slumped to the point that we couldn't effectively take care of our business in the manor that we wanted. The decision to shut our website down came soon after.
With the announcement of our Press Release we have re-entered the market with glowing success.
FUTURE OF KABOODLE GIFTS:
The personalized gift market business is a multi- billion dollar market serving many niches including but not limited to birthday's, weddings, wedding parties, individuals, children and many more. We feel that we can capture a small piece of this market. What would you rather have; 100% of one person's business or 1% of 100 peoples' business? We are looking into several other products that we feel will compliment our core line of products and hope to bring them to market soon.
BOTTOM LINE:
The only thing that is constant is change. Change in product line, change in marketing and most important change in customer service! If you are willing to keep changing, adjusting your methods of doing business you will find out that you will have a solid base of returning customers that will in turn expand your business to great lengths.
*note* The comments or suggestions from Kaboodle Gifts are opinion based. The opinion(s) stated in this blog post have worked for Kaboodle Gifts, LLC and are not guaranteed to work for others.
Friday, July 4, 2008
Why Personalize a Gift?- Kaboodle Gifts
Why would you want to personalize a gift? That is the question of the day. There are many reasons. Lets look at a few of them:
Personality of gift giver:
There are many people that take a long time to find the perfect gift commemorating the special occasion be it a birthday, anniversary,baptismal, or a gift for the man cave. It is that personal touch and thought that goes into every decision that is made pertaining to the recepient. These decisions are usually made but not limited to women. Think about that statement for a minute. Women are nortorious planners. They know when Bobbie's birthday is even though Bobbie is not their child. It makes perfectly good sense that women take their time in getting the right gift for the occasion. I know that the women that are reading this post are agreeing with me and the reason I know this is because because being a guy I know the planning that my wife does to make an occasion special.
Speciality gift:
When people exchange their hard earned money for a gift they want it to be special or unique especially in today's economy with the housing crisis and the job market the way it is. The gift giver wants their gift to remain special and unique well after the date of the occasion. They don't want to know that it has been put in some storage drawer or worse yet....regifted. They put alot of thought into the process of giving the gift and seeing the reaction of the recepient justifies their actions.
Recepients personality:
Matching the right gift to the recepients personality is as much an art as anything else. Knowing the recepients personality is an absolute must. You don't want to buy a piece of jewelry for someone that doesn't wear jewelry.
These are just a few of the reasons that personalizing a gift is important. As you read this post I'm sure that you are thinkng of more. With Kaboodle Gifts we can personalize the right gift for the occasion and we can also send a special message on the package for you just ask us for the details.
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