1) DO talk to experts about appropriate gifts for your clients. Discuss budget and types of gifts that are appropriate.

2) DON’T send a group gift unless everyone knows each other. If your client is a large company and you work with multiple people at that company, sending a group gift is appropriate if they all work in the same area and can share.

3) DO consider another time of year (other than year-end) to send gifts of appreciation to your clients. Your gift will be remembered and is an excellent tool to market your business during the year.

4) DON’T send personal items to clients or staff. It could be misinterpreted.

5) DO be conscious of cultural and health restrictions. Hindus, for example, don’t use any cow products. Traditional Chinese believe a gift of a timepiece means death. Diabetics need to watch their sugar intake, while people with food allergies need to see ingredient information.

6) DON’T overlook international etiquette. If your gift is sent overseas, make sure you ask your gift professional to advise you on local customs first. Cultures differ by country and by area of the world, don’t assume you know about an area you are not familiar with.

7) DO check company policy for dollar limits on gifts. If a corporate gift policy prohibits gifts, ask if you can still send a fruit basket for everyone at the company to share in.

DO consider bulk shipment. Other than saving money on shipping and handling, you add the personal touch by hand delivery to your customer. The additional benefit - you thank your customer in person for their business and it helps form a good solid business relationship.

9) DON’T send gifts wrapped in black and gold. Traditionally, these are colors of mourning. Gifts or wrapping in purple are considered a symbol of bad luck. Talk to your gift professional for advice on appropriate gift ideas.

10) DO keep your gift neutral. You don’t want to offend anyone. Be religion neutral.

11) DO thank your customers for their business. It’s not how much you spend, but the thought that counts! Thanking your customers will build solid business relationships.

I recently ran across an excellent article in “strategy+business” (an online and hard copy magazine devoted to strategy issues) that shed some interesting light on a very important marketing issue.

The article, entitled “Six Types of Marketing Organizations: Where Do You Fit In”, is based on a study by Booz Allen Hamilton and the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) that identified six basic types of “marketing organizations” within companies. I found it to be a fascinating and insightful look at the importance of making sure the marketing function aligns with what the business really needs.

According to the article, the six types of marketing “organizations” (i.e. the marketing people, systems and processes inside a business and the activities they perform) are as follows:

1. Growth Champion. Marketing drives strategy at the senior level and plays a major role in generating revenue and leading new product and business development.

2. Senior Counselor. Although still functioning at the strategic level, marketing serves as more of an advisor to the CEO than a formulator of company-wide strategy.

3. Brand Foreman. Functioning in a more of tactical role, marketing focuses on providing various services to support the company’s brands. This can include developing communications strategies and creative initiatives, as well as campaign execution.

4. Growth Facilitator. Similar to the growth champion, except here marketing mainly supports other major functions rather than initiating and leading strategy on its own.

5. Best Practices Advisor. Marketing serves as more of a tactical weapon whose primary purpose is to help each business unit achieve maximum effectiveness in their marketing efforts.

6. Service Provider. Marketing acts much like an outside vendor, providing advertising, promotions, public relations and other marketing services to the company’s business units and product teams as needed.

The danger, warns the article, is that most marketing organizations believe they cover all these functions, when in fact they actually perform only one. As a result, there is often a major disconnect between what the business needs from the marketing function and what it actually gets.

The key to resolving this dilemma lies in answering three critical questions:

1. What type of marketing organization currently exists in your company?

2. What type of marketing organization needs to exist in your company (based on your strategic goals, value proposition and the future direction of your business)?

3. How do you properly align the marketing team so that #1 and #2 are the same?

A Simple Test

What I really liked about the article was that it included a link to the Booz Allen/ANA Marketing Profiler, a short questionnaire that identifies your marketing organization’s current profile and offers recommendations for your moving your marketing organization closer to where it needs to be. In addition, the profiler offers resources and readings (based upon your profile) to help formulate the proper strategy for this “migration path.”

I took the profiler for Townsend, Inc., and found it to be quite accurate (we came out as “Growth Champions”) in its assessment of our current marketing function. More important, the recommendations offered to improve our marketing organization were dead on. They helped focus my thinking in several important areas and reinforced a couple of initiatives we have recently begun. For example:

* Recommendation: Develop metrics and decision tools (such as marketing ROI) to measure the performance of individual products, channels and segments.

* Lesson learned: At Townsend, we need to do a better job of measuring our marketing ROI. We have already started down that road by shifting primarily to direct marketing and Internet marketing, which should make it easier for us to track and measure results.

* Recommendation: Don’t keep all decision-making authority at the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) level. Instead, allocate these “decision rights” to appropriate levels of the organization to ensure accurate, rapid and continuous responses to service requests

* Lesson learned: This was a good reminder that we need to get our internal teams more involved in the marketing process so they can help select where we prospect and ensure that we generate the right kinds of clients for Townsend.

* Recommendation: Make sure your capabilities are properly aligned with both the marketing agenda and the CEO’s priorities. Understand exactly what skills are required in individual areas.

* Lesson learned: If we’re going to market through the Internet, we need to build internal Web-based marketing skills as quickly as possible.

* Recommendation: Involve other organizational areas (operations, product development, finance, sales) early in the process of making marketing investments

* Lesson learned: Again, a good reminder to get our internal teams more involved in how we market as an organization.

The Rise of Samsung

It might be easy to dismiss this kind of assessment as an interesting but not especially valuable exercise. Before doing so, however, consider what assessing their marketing organization did for Samsung.

According to the “strategy+business” article, Eric Kim took over as vice president of global marketing for Samsung in 1999, just as the company embarked on a new strategy to go from “a low-cost producer of electronics, sold primarily under the brand names of its OEM customers, to a manufacturer of high-end digital products.” This represented a huge and very difficult shift for the company, one that could lead to failure on a massive scale if all the proper elements were not in place.

Upon analyzing the skills, structure and core competencies of his marketing organization, Kim quickly realized they did not align with the new direction. He then spent five years reworking Samsung’s entire marketing organization so that it more closely matched the firm’s newly identified needs.

The result?

Last year, Samsung became the world’s 21st most valuable brand (according to the Business Week/Interbrand 2004 rankings), only one spot behind the vaunted Japanese electronics giant, Sony. While many factors contributed to this meteoric rise, developing the right kind of marketing organization clearly played a major role in elevating Samsung to its current position as one of the world’s elite brands.

So — what kind of marketing organization do you have? And more important, does it deliver what your organization needs?

To find out, take the Booz Allen/ANA Marketing Profiler. I also recommend reading the article to get a full understanding of the concepts involved. You may discover that you’re marketing organization is right on track with where it needs to be. Or you may find out that you’re trying to pound a round peg into a square hole.

Either way, my guess is you’ll find it time well spent.

Get your free whitepaper: The 10 Biggest Technology Marketing Mistakes… and How to Avoid Them

Rod Whitson serves Townsend as President and Chief Brand Strategist. Townsend is expert at helping organizations with innovative products and services develop differentiated, compelling value propositions. Townsend is the largest integrated marketing agency in Southern California. Rod has personally led recent branding engagements with Intel, BAE Systems, Merck, DowPharma, Marsh & McLennan, and the University of California system. He has also worked with a host of successful and not so successful early stage technology and life sciences companies. Since Townsend’s founding in 1993, it has helped clients create market valuation in excess of $80 billion.

Visit Rod’s blog, Branding the Complex

© 2006 Rod Whitson - All Rights Reserved Worldwide

One of the characteristics that distinguishes the successful in life and business from their less successful counterparts is their bent for action. Successful people tend to take more, better and smarter actions. But most of all they act now rather than at some wished-for point in time. A couple of recent examples brought this point home in a powerful way.

I was talking with someone a couple weeks ago who was in a state of overwhelm. She had hired an assistant to help her enter her contacts into a Palm Pilot. And while that was a very positive first step, she still had no idea how to operate her handheld device. Without asking what she was waiting for, I simply said to her, “Let’s get you up and running on it right now.” Fifteen minutes later she was delighted to have learned 90% of what she would need to make use of this time-saving tool. The key ingredient? You guessed it: action.

A client told me about an experience she had recently when she hired a personal assistant to help her organize papers and files at home. She also happened to mention to the woman that she wanted to reorganize her clothes closet. The assistant’s response: “Let’s do it now.” And an hour later, my client was thrilled to have her closet neatly organized. Once again, the difference was action.

Several times a year I offer a four-hour planning workshop called Best Year Yet(R), which gives participants an opportunity to create a one-year goal plan for their lives and businesses.* Consistently the participants walk out of the program fired up and ready to make great things happen. Yet that enthusiasm quickly fades unless they take some action in short order to start moving ahead on the goals they set. I offer all participants a free one-hour coaching session (valued at about $175) following the workshop. Less than 20% take advantage of it, but not surprisingly, the 20% who take that action are the same 20% who actually report back later that they are having (or have had) their best year ever. Why? Because they got in action.

Have you been waiting for something to change in order for you to get in action on a dream, goal or project? Maybe it’s better weather. Maybe you’re waiting until you “feel like it.” Maybe you think there is something else you need to do to “get ready” to get in action. At the end of the day, it’s action that separates the great from the good, the good from the mediocre and the mediocre from the failure. It’s action, consistently taken toward whatever you dream of, that turns dreams into reality.

In his book One Small Step Can Change Your Life, author Robert Maurer, devotes one entire chapter to “taking small actions.” Everything from weight loss and exercise to saving money or kicking a bad habit like smoking begin with one small step, repeated enough times to build confidence, competence and momentum.

This week I invite you to get in action. Take a step on that project you’ve been procrastinating on. Remove 10 pieces of paper from your desk. Return a phone call you’re avoiding. Eliminate something you no longer need, use or want. Enroll in the class you’ve promised yourself you’ll take. Start an exercise program by walking up a flight or stairs or parking at the back of the parking lot. The size of the action doesn’t matter. Taking it does. What are you waiting for?

***********************
Quote of the Week
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“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. See the small improvements one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens–and when it happens, it lasts.”

~~John Wooden
Award-winning UCLA basketball coach

Betty Mahalik has been coaching small business owners, independent professionals and leaders who want to achieve more but stress less, since 1996. Her background includes several years in the broadcasting and public relations fields prior to starting her own firm in 1987. She is an accomplished public speaker and corporate trainer specializing in communications, goal-setting and leveraging your strengths. Since 2001, she has written a weekly motivational message, free to subscribers, titled Monday Morning Coach.

Before booking your hotel accommodation in Rome, you do not have to disregard the weather conditions and the months in which tourists are packed when visiting its monuments.

Rome has a nice weather and this makes the eternal city visitable year-round; however, spring and autumn is without doubt the best times to visit, with generally clear skies and mild temperatures (even if late autumn, November, can be rainy). July and August are humid and hot (many Romans desert the city in August so many businesses close at this time); from December to February there is briskly cold weather, although it’s rarely grey and gloomy.

In Rome the toursit season starts generally from the first of April to October and again for the two weeks around Christhmas and new year’s Eve.
August is a very nice month in Rome, because you can find the city empty and you can discover the treasures of the eternal city, like the vatican and the ancient roman ruins.

During the Holy Week (Easter) Catholics from around the world make pilgrimages to Rome’s various basilicas and to hear the Pope give his blessing from the window of its apartment in sixty languages. On Good Friday there is the pope’s procession of the Cross from the Colosseum to Capitoline Hill that is worldwide broadcasted: you do not need tickets to attend it.
Making a reservation at the hotels of Rome during easter period is really very hard and you can have the unpleasant surprise to change your hotel accommodation very often due to the overbooking system.

Stefano Sandano is an archaeologist of Rome and expert of his city. You can find more informations about Rome’s hotels on www.romanguide.com

Simply put, a corporation is a form of business entity. You probably already know this, so this article delves into a few of the particulars.

Separate Entity

For legal purposes, a corporation is considered a separate legal entity from those forming it. Although it is not a living person, a corporation generally has the same rights. It can own property, enter contracts and claim constitutional rights. Unluckily, a corporation also must pay taxes like you and me.

Unlike each of us, a corporation can “live” for 100 years, 200 years or more. Certain forms of corporations were known to exist as far back as in the days of Ancient Rome. Despite it’s gladiator tendencies towards other companies, Microsoft was not the first corporation.

State of Incorporation

These days, state law authorizes and governs the creation of corporations. In 1811, New York was the first state to pass laws authorizing corporations. As other states were created, the passage of laws authorizing the corporate enitity became standard practice. Today, corporations can be formed in every state.

The Secretary of State for each jurisdiction typically controls the incorporation process. Corporations are “residents” of the state in which they maintain offices, have employees, receive mail, etc. This is true even if it conducts business in other states.

A corporation is considered a “domestic entity” in the state in which it is incorporated. In all other states, it is considered a “foreign entity.” For example, a company like Nomad Journals is a domestic corporation in Colorado, where it is based. When I buy a travel journal from it, California authorities may consider it a foreign corporation and require it to conform to California law. Foreign corporation status is a technical area of law and well beyond the scope of this article. Nonetheless, just keep in mind that the state of incorporation can be a key issue, particularly when it comes to tax issues.

Limited Liability Corporation

Ah, the good stuff. The primary benefit of using a corporation is the limited liability advantage. Since it is considered a separate entity from shareholders, a corporation creates a barrier between corporate liabilities and the assets of shareholders. The only risk shareholders take is the loss of their investment in the corporation.

Assume I own a home worth $800,000 in San Diego and invest $10,000 in a new business. The business is incorporated in California and is going to dominate the VHS tape market. Alas, my fortune teller apparently had an off day when she told me to invest and the company goes bankrupt in six months. I will lose my $10,000 investment, but not my $800,000 home. If the business had been formed as a partnership, I would lose the investment and some or all of my home depending on the business debts.

In Closing

Considering it was originated in the distant past, the corporate entity is still remarkably relevant in modern times. Although the proliferation of the limited liability company has taken some wind out of the sails, the corporation remains a staple of the business environment.

Richard Chapo, Esq., is with http://www.sandiegobusinesslawfirm.com offering business law advice to California businesses.

This article is for general education purposes and does not address every facet of the subject matter. Nothing in this article creates an attorney-client relationship.

A thought is an energy. Energy always wants to manifest itself.

Energy can not be stocked or blocked. It will get out anyway. If
you do something to prevent your energy from flowing, it will
find another way to express itself. If you do not follow your
own energy, your intuition, if you swim against the stream of
your own flow, energy will express itself in sickness,
tiredness, depression, skin diseases, temper tantrums,
agressiveness and other not so pleasant things. So why not
follow the road where your energy takes you? This is your road,
your way!

Do you know the song “I did it my way”? Well, if you do things
your way, if you dare being yourself, you will feel the energy.

As long as you try to be somebody else to please your parents,
peers, husband, wife, boss, children, neighbours or whatever,
your energy will be stuck. Ok, you say, but won’t I become
selfish, an outlaw, a social disaster by following my own road?
No! You will become yourself. That is freedom : to be yourself.

See the world like a big wardrobe. Everybody has his own
costume. There is only one that fits you perfectly. As long as
you try to be someone else, you are walking around with a
costume that is either too small or too big for you. You don’t
feel comfortable in it. And what else is, you “stole” a costume
that belongs to someone else! That means you are not at the
right place doing the right thing with the right people! You
took someone else’s place, someone else’s costume!

How can you know if you are at the right place, doing the right
thing with the right people? There is a very simple criterion to
find out : the questions stop in your mind! This spinning
machine in your head that was torturing you for years has just
stopped by itself! You can feel it : you feel good, everything
is “right”, your talents are asked for and you have the greatest
pleasure to offer them to the those around you. Everything falls
at his place. Questions vanish and make place for peace.

As long as you torture yourself with all these questions, it
means you still didn’t find your right spot on earth. You are
doing an activity that somebody else should be doing. And your
“job” is getting done by someone else who is not at his right
place either! You see? It’s like a puzzle : if everyone is at
his right place doing the thing he knows the best, everyone
would be at peace, filled with energy and health, and everyone
would live in wealth.

Go searching for your right place. The moment you stop being
harassed by so many questions and you feel your energy flowing
in your veins, you know this is it! You are on your road, your
road to freedom. This IS freedom!

Look for it, go for it!

Once in Maui, two girlfriends and I set out to find a quiet beach for the day. Not a touristy beach crowded with families, honeymooners and the smell of coconut suntan lotion, but a small private patch of sand where we could talk and connect with Mother Nature. We hopped into our rental car at 11:00AM. Without an itinerary, we wanted to rely on our natural instincts, and of course, Maui’s resident volcano Goddess, Pele, to show us the way.

After passing all the familiar beaches, we continued along the main road, stopping at various spots. Some of these were quite picturesque with crashing waves hitting jagged black lava rock, however, not exactly what we had in mind. As our journey progressed, the wide, flat double-lane highway turned into a single-lane, broken tarred road with hairpin turns leading up a mountain. At 5MPH, we had to honk the horn around each turn to alert possible drivers coming in the opposite direction. Yes, a bit treacherous, but highly worth the breathtaking ocean and cliff views.
After a couple of hours, our stomachs were grumbling from the winding road and our mounting hunger. One friend remembered that this was the road that led to a small town where an old woman sold homemade banana bread from a roadside hut. Nothing (except maybe chocolate) could have been a better incentive for three Goddesses to continue onward and find that banana bread lady!

An hour and a few dozen switchback turns later, we found hera Hawaiian native with island hair and an ear to ear smile looking as if she had been waiting for us all along! We devoured the banana bread and conceded that it was the best banana bread we had ever tastedwarm, moist, spicy and sweet. When we asked our hostess if we should turn back, she recommended we continue on the same road since we were more than half way around the mountain, and the road would eventually circle back to the beach.

With happy, full tummies, we headed out. Finally, after several towns, the road took one last curve, leading us back to blue water. At 4:00PM, we noticed a small beach covered with trees growing out of the sand that were bent towards the ocean at unusual angles. We settled into that secluded beach, swam in the crystal clear ocean, gave each other Tarot card readings, and soaked up the sun until 5:30PM when we had to leave.
Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the hotel ten minutes later! We had traveled most of the day looking for the perfect beach, only to find it ten minutes from where we started. Yes, sometimes what you’re looking for is right under your own nose, but that beach would have never looked and felt as good had we found it in ten minutes. We would have missed the journeybeautiful scenery, intimate conversations, and yes…the best banana bread in the world! Maybe Pele really was leading us.

Regardless of your destination, it’s the journey that gives it meaning.

5 Ways to Enjoy The Journey:

• On family car trips, take time to stop along the way to absorb the scenery or the people.

• When you set a goal in life, accept and enjoy any and all roads that lead to it.

• When you reach a goal in life, reflect upon the lessons learned in your journey and appreciate what you’ve accomplished.

• Keep a daily journal and read past entries. They will answer your questions about why things happened when they did.

• When a difficult situation takes you “off-track”, stay in the present, knowing this too shall pass.

Excerpted from the book: The Goddess of Happiness, A Down-to-Earth Guide for Heavenly Balance and Bliss

Debbie Gisonni, aka The Goddess of Happiness, is an author (The Goddess of Happiness: A Down-to-Earth Guide for Heavenly Balance and Bliss and Vita’s Will: Real Life Lessons about Life Death & Moving On), speaker, happiness expert and columnist for iVillage.com. Contact: http://www.goddessofhappiness.com

Copyright, All Rights Reserved, Debbie Gisonni

Many years ago when I started betting on sports, I never imagined that ten years on I would be betting and trading for a living.

So how did it all start? Well, ‘for fun’ I would think is the most accurate answer! I placed bets for fun on sporting events that I intended watching on TV or attending in person. These bets, along with the small amount of betting research that I did back then, tended to increase my knowledge of the particular sport on which I was betting and certainly made the event more exciting to watch.

Now of course I stake my bets far more heavily, research more thoroughly and trade off positions as necessary. Yet sometimes I do miss those ‘carefree’ days when I had “twenty bucks on the game”. It adds to your day - especially if you win!

So what are two basic things that the sports bettor needs: Firstly he needs a place to bet online. Two sportsbooks that I particularly like, both of which are in world’s “top ten” online sports betting and gambling groups, are: - VIP Sports Group and Gameday Sportsbook - Both sportsbooks also offer free comprehensive sports news, stats and matchups data.

Secondly - the sports bettor needs to have a feel for ‘value’ when betting. If the three rules of purchasing property or real estate are “location, location, location.” then the three basic rules of sports betting success are: “value, value, value.”

Think about it - would you go to a store and by a broom for $20.00 when you can buy it for $10.00 at an equally close location?

Or if you were purchasing stocks or shares - would you simply buy the stock, or first consider the stock’s price - factoring in price/ratio, moving averages, historical data and economic outlook?

It boils down to - “not paying more for a product than that product is worth.”

When I look at a bet - I have a rough idea in my head of what the odds should be. If the price quoted by the sportsbook is sufficiently above that estimation in percentage terms - then I will go ahead and bet on the event.

I will not win every bet, especially on underdog plays - but in the long run I know that if I go with value - then I will come out on top.

The best advice that I can offer to those starting out in sports betting is to “stick with what you know”. If you have a team that you follow and already know well - then you are, in a sense, already a “mini expert”.

Have fun!

About the Author

The author has been a professional sports bettor and trader for seven years and helps advise a number of sportsbooks:

Gameday Sportsbook
SportingBet
Bet 19

amongst others - all of which are leaders in the sports betting and gambling industry.

Some golf players have been able to increase their game tremendously by studying the physics of their golf swing…by capturing and analyzing the biomechanics of their golf swing.

Biomechanics or Motion Capture Technology (MOCAP) is the mechanical analysis of body motion. Studying and understanding the physics of the golf swing by analyzing the biomechanics of your swing can help improve your golf game. This is usually achieved with the help of high speed video technology.

The fact is that it is not always very easy to identify specific problems for correction in the golf swing. However if the physics of the golf swing is clearly captured and studied, it makes everything a lot easier and the correct improvements can be quickly carried out.

Actually one of the most effective correctional techniques these days is the use of special conditioning and golf-specific endurance exercises. The exercise work miracles in strengthening the muscles being used in specific stages of the golf swing, making correction extremely simple after a careful study of the physics of the golf swing.

After all it is widely accepted that the correct physics of the golf swing is a complex, awkward movement that is far from being natural for the body and which one can only get right through constant practice and exercise and conditioning specific to golf and designed to perfect the physics of your golf swing.

The proper or perfect golf swing is really a study in physics. Starting from the motion to the impact and flight of the ball through the air. Focusing on the physics of the golf swing is bound to provide plenty of eye-openers on how you can improve your game.

About The Author: Mike Pedersen is the featured expert for Golf Magazine’s GolfOnline.com site, one of the top golf fitness experts in the country, author and founder of several cutting-edge online golf fitness sites. Take a look at his just released golf fitness dvds and manual at his golf swing trainer site - Perform Better Golf.

Many people do make good money with their eBay businesses. You can be one of those people if you take the right steps at the beginning to set up your business. You should approach an eBay business like any other. Do the necessary research first. Don’t rush into it with dreams of making a quick fortune.

Take your time and familiarize yourself with the eBay website. Take notes of the type of products you are thinking of selling - check out the competition, pricing and most of all take particular note of actual selling prices and whether the bidding was slow or fast and furious.

There are literally millions (somewhere in the region of 100 million) of eBay members, but this does not mean you are going to reach anywhere near that number. They won’t even know you exist unless you prepare your strategy first.

You’ll find that a large number of successful eBay sellers have started off as buyers. This is a good idea as you can get a feel for how the whole system works, plus you will know what buyers are looking for and what problems you are likely to encounter. Being a buyer will certainly help you become a proficient seller as you will understand the system from both sides of the fence.

A few things to take note of while you are learning from the buyer’s point of view:

* the customer service you received

* the accuracy of the description of the selling item

* the ease and speed of finalizing the transaction

* whether communication was good or not

* was the sales page well set out

* were delivery costs fair and reasonable

If you approach an eBay business like any other online business you will have a much better chance of making a good income. The following points should give you an idea of what you should be thinking about.

1. Decide whether you will set up an eBay Store

Whilst checking out the eBay website, you would have noticed a number of sellers have their own eBay Store. The advantages of this are many and you would be wise to check out the details of setting up your own eBay Store. Information is readily available on the eBay site.

2. Setting up your own Website

For many reasons, it is advisable to have your own independent website. Look at it as your “Head Office” with your eBay store as a subsidiary. If at some time in the future you decide to discontinue your eBay store, you will still have your business website.

Another good reason for setting up a website is that it gives you the ability to diversify your business. This can mean the difference between success and failure. It will also give you the ability to build a subscriber list that will be beneficial for both your eBay business and your own website business.

3. What Products are in high demand?

Take particular note of products that sell well and what the competition is. Also check the availability of the products as well as the cost. Armed with this information you can determine whether or not a product is a viable proposition.

4. eBay Learning Center and University

Before you think of buying tutorials on eBay trading, check out the resources provided by eBay.

The Learning Center will provide you with tutorials and guides relative to the different areas of eBay. In addition, you will find many free resources on the internet in the form of reports, tutorials and e-books. So have a good look around before paying for this type of information. Of course if you do purchase training products they will more than likely be a taxable deduction.

The eBay University runs offline and online courses covering every aspect of an eBay business. This is where you can learn tried and true methods from the experts.

Running your own eBay business can be a rewarding experience. To ensure you succeed, research your market and your product before undertaking your first Auction.

Remember you will receive queries from prospective bidders, so you must be extremely knowledgeable about your product.

Brent is a regular writer for http://www.the-best-business.biz - for more business and money making ideas please visit our website.