No one ever told me that you have to do all these things before you start your business... well you don't have to at first. Some people like to make a small investment, test their product with real customers and make some money to prove they have a viable business before incorporating. When you are ready, I outlined my COMPLETE dummy proof process on how I got started. Even though these links are specific to California (where I live now), the steps and process to which you go about incorporating are typically the same, but please note that your state might have a different terminology for the same thing.  For example, some states call the Articles of Incorporation, the Certificate of Formation. Also, different state office can be called something different, ie Secretary of State, State Department of Taxation or Corporation Commission. Before I start, read my disclaimer below. Disclaimer: This material has been prepared for informational purposes only, and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for, tax, legal or accounting advice. You should consult your own tax, legal and accounting advisors before engaging in any action. Check out this podcast where I interviewed Nellie Akalp from Corpnet where she shared some of her experience with incorporation.     Here is what I'm going over, step by step and the specific order you need to do them in because there are instances where you need to wait for one organization to approve and provide you an id before you can continue to the next. Find your Secretary of State Search for Company Name Prepare Articles of Incorporation or Organization File for DBA (optional) Obtain EIN File for an S-Election with the IRS Seller's Permit Business License Annual Filings Steps for Incorporating or Organization Your Entity Find Your Secretary of State If you have any questions on incorporating in the state of California, go to http://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/contact. Every state should have their own Secretary of State website for you to find more information on entities and incorporating. If you need help, just give them a call and ask away, they are usually very helpful. Name Search Search For Company Name, make sure it's not taken, https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/.  You don't want to fill out all the paperwork to have it returned because you didn't take 2 minutes to make sure the name is not taken. Prepare Articles of Incorporation or Organization Prepare Articles of Organization with your Secretary of State. Based on your entity, you'll need to select the appropriate forms, http://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/forms. Please note that when you speak to different state/city entities, the proper terms to use with a LLC is organization and forming. For corporations, it's called incorporating. Just a little FYI here to help facilitate your conversation.  I confused the heck out of them when I say I want to incorporate a LLC. Entities you can choose: Click here for more entity and structure information from the IRS. Corporations Limited Liability Companies Limited Partnerships General Partnerships Limited Liability Partnerships Other Business Filings Since most small businesses start off as a single-member LLC, you will initially be classified as a disregarded entity for the purposes of filing a federal tax return. If the only member of the LLC is an individual, the LLC income and expenses are reported on Form 1040 - U.S. Individual Income Tax Return), Schedule C, E, or F. If the only member of the LLC is not an individual, the LLC income and expenses are reported on the owner/member's tax return. If you do not wish to accept the default classification of disregarded entity, you can: File Form 8832 (Entity Classification Election) to elect corporate status, or File Form 2553 (Election by a Small Business Corporation) to elect S corporation status. Click here to fill out your S election form. After you receive your confirmation of your state registration letter, for LLC, you are required to keep your public record updated by filing (within 90 days of filing the Articles of Organization) a Statement of Information with the State of California Secretary of State.  Here's a link to the LLC-12 form, http://bpd.cdn.sos.ca.gov/llc/forms/llc-12.pdf One thing to note, you might have heard of Resident Agents (RA). The term registered agent or statutory agent is defined as any individual or business that is assigned to receive service of process during which such an individual or business is part of a summons, lawsuit or similar legal action. Also, some people uses an RA to add an additional layer of privacy to hide the owner information, but in my opinion, if you really want to know who owns a business, it's not that much harder to find. File for FBN/DBA **[Optional] File for a Fictitious Business Name (FBN) or Doing Business As (DBA)** statement is required when the business name does not include the surname of the individual owner(s) and each of the partners; or the business name suggests the existence of additional owners; or the nature of the business in not clearly evident by the name of the business. If your business is already set up and you want to do business under a name other than your existing corporation or LLC name, you will need to register a DBA. Here's a clear example, if you own a couple of brands selling on Amazon and would like to keep them separate, you can have one incorporation/entity with two DBA's. Or you can always have two corporations, which would mean two separate books and returns at year end. Registering your DBA is done either with your county clerk’s office or with your state government, depending on where your business is located. There are a few states that do not require the registering of fictitious business names. If you need to FBN or DBA in San Diego, go to https://arcc.sdcounty.ca.gov/Pages/all-forms.aspx#fbn, otherwise, you can skip this step. After receiving a written confirmation on registering your DBA, you'll need to put a newspaper publication.  State laws generally require a business to publish a fictitious name statement to connect the business name and the owner. The statement allows consumers to get information about the owner of the company.  The published notice must run at a certain frequency and for a number of weeks, 4-weeks in San Diego.  This usually runs about $25 to $65.  You can call around based on an approved list of publications included from the DBA registration. Obtain EIN Obtain EIN number from the Internal Revenue Service (Federal Tax Identification Number). ** This number is used to set up bank account and is your businesses id, just like a Social Security Number to a person. Click here to get your EIN  Seller's Permit Next thing is to get your **Seller's permit and/or resale certificate**. You have to wait for your LLC ID from Secretary of State before you can submit your application online. What is the difference between a sellers permit and a resale certificate? Seller's Permit - required for all persons selling tangible property. You will need this to sell your products, apply for your Seller's Permit by clicking here, http://www.boe.ca.gov/elecsrv/ereg/. Here are some additional information on Seller's Permit, http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/pub73.pdf. Again, you can check your states respectable organization to obtain your seller's permit. Resale Certificate - called BOE230 General Resale Certificate in California. If you purchase tangible personal property for resale, the transaction is not subject to sales or use tax provided the sale is properly documented. As a result, your supplier will ask you to provide a resale certificate as proof that the property was purchased for resale. You normally get your Seller's Permit first then your Resale Certificate if you need one. You can fill out this form and provide it to your supplier upon request, http://www.boe.ca.gov/pdf/boe230.pdf. Contact the California State Board of Equalization: Address: 15015 Avenue of Science, Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92128Phone: (800) 400-7115 (tel:8004007115) http://www.boe.ca.gov/elecsrv/ereg/index.html Some additional information, http://www.boe.ca.gov/formspubs/pub103/index.html Business License The jurisdiction where your home is located is likely to require a general business license. This license serves a two-fold purpose. First, licensing protects the residents of the city or county by identifying businesses operating in its jurisdiction.  Second, licensing raises revenue for the local government. For this reason, most general business licenses must be renewed annually. My local fee is about $20 a year. Annual Filings California law requires all corporations and limited liability companies to update the records of the California Secretary of State either every year or every two years based on year of registration by filing a statement. Annual Report or Statement of Information (for CA) Click here http://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/statements and see which forms you need. Employment Forms Obtain an EDD number from the Employment Development Department, which is required if you employ and pay anyone (including yourself). When you first start out, you might not immediately need this because you're probably not going to necessarily make a profit your first few months or year. Ask your CPA for advice on when to start filing.  So here you go, a complete "How to incorporate your business guide" for dummies.  If you have any questions, please contact your lawyer and accountant and hopefully, you can find someone knowledgable in your area of focus.  

The eStore Coaching Podcast - Build. Market. Grow. | The 3 Pillars of an Online Business

Everything you need to know about Incorporating your Ecommerce business

See how Mark DiMuzio help co-found Vestige by using his contacts in wholesale with about a dozen graphic t-shirt designs and start selling to retail shops like Nordstrom and Bloomingdales. Tweet this Listen to Mark DiMuzio as he shares his journey of realizing his graphic t-shirt apparel company, click to listen. Key Points Discussed: How Vestige Brand got started Why did Mark choose graphic t-shirts as his niche? How to get into retail stores? Which platform do they use? Sourcing T-shirts started in Los Angeles and then moved Colombia and China I love Mark's strategy on finding good screen printers (or any vendors for your market) If your product requires some sort of machine to produce or customize, call the manufacturer and see who they have sold to Visit the shops that have those machines and pick the ones you want to work with Warehouse and wholesale fulfillment Ecommerce Resources Mentioned: Vestige  Project tradeshow Chicago Collective tradeshow Shopify Mailchimp Klaviyo Sponsors: Get Drip.co to manage your email automation with a powerful rule-driven engine.  If you sign up with my partner link, I'll give you a $10 Amazon gift card for any paying plan.  If you're learning more about email marketing and automation for Ecommerce, click here. Do you currently run an online business but struggling to get sales? Click here to learn about getting actionable strategies to boost sales and sustain it. Ecommerce Launch Formula to learn how to start an online business 

Graphic T-shirt Startup Story of Vestige Brand

Sujan Patel is the co-founder of Web Profits, a growth marketing agency helping companies leverage the latest and greatest marketing strategy to fuel their businesses. Sujan has over 13 years of internet marketing experience and has led the digital marketing strategy for companies like Sales Force, Mint, Intuit and many other Fortune 500 caliber companies. Check out these simple but valuable growth strategies for your Ecommerce business. If you're stuck or simply out of ideas to grow your online business, take a listen and try one of these now. Tweet this Sujan Patel shares his Ecommerce growth hacks to grow your online business, click to listen. Key Points Discussed: What is one of the most common problems that Ecommerce business are doing In the next 30 days, what can you do to grow your businessLet's be realistic, you cannot optimize and rewrite all your product descriptions.  Selecting your main products and rewrite those instead. Take your own product pictures if you sell the same thing that other sellers are doing and ask them to send in their own images as reviews and testimonies. Capture emails with an incentive optin offering coupons and a VIP list Setup remarketing campaigns Optimize your checkout page, try using a 2 step checkout to capture their name and email first We spoke about Facebook chats and automation Recommendation for new sellers to get sales Ecommerce Resources Mentioned: Chubbies Short Hello Bar Sumome Samcart Audience Push for Shopify Drip for email marketing and automation Survicate or Hotjar or Bounce Exchange and Optin Monster for exit intents Usefomo for showing off customer interactions Carthook for abandoncart Sponsors: Get Drip.co to manage your email automation with a powerful rule-driven engine.  If you sign up with my partner link, I'll give you a $10 Amazon gift card for any paying plan.  If you're learning more about email marketing and automation for Ecommerce, click here. Do you currently run an online business but struggling to get sales? Click here to learn about getting actionable strategies to boost sales and sustain it. Ecommerce Launch Formula to learn how to start an online business 

Grow Hacks For The Next 30 Days (for your Ecommerce business)

Listen to our guest, Shaun Buck as he talks about why this method is the single easiest and most effective way to increase retention rates, increase referrals and instantly build long-lasting relationships with your clients. Tweet this Shaun Buck shares his incredible offline strategy to using newsletters and direct mail, click to listen. Who newsletter is good for? What type of online retailers are sending newsletters  Which industries does this work for? High ticket or product value and frequent repeat visits, ie pet grooming or grocery stores Types of offline marketing, ie when to use postcards, catalogs, subscriptions ... for retail and Ecommerce stores Direct mail vs. Email response, average American receives about 160 emails a day and on average, each household receives about 4 pieces of mail a day. How to sell through direct mail Follow up with an email and offer with post card for warm leads. For cold leads, re-engage with another product related to the subject to get users back on your website When should you start using newsletter in your business How do you measure the success of your offline campaign Cost of direct mail usually $0.70 to $1.00, postcards about $0.45, newsletter about $1.00, this is cheaper than some of your Facebook ads. If you want to get started with direct mail and newsletter, how do you get your feet wet? Strategy 1 for warm leads: Use an existing email campaign and follow up using direct mail to customers who did not buy Strategy 2 for cold leads: Buy a list with both emails and address and run Facebook campaigns in parallel with your offline marketing so that they can see both ads.  This will keep you top of mind and allow the users to take action. Ecommerce Resources Mentioned: Checkout Newsletterpro with this special link that introduces some strategies, tactics and download a copy of his book. Sponsors: Get Drip.co to manage your email automation with a powerful rule-driven engine.  If you sign up with my partner link, I'll give you a $10 Amazon gift card for any paying plan.  If you're learning more about email marketing and automation for Ecommerce, click here. Do you currently run an online business but struggling to get sales? Click here to learn about getting actionable strategies to boost sales and sustain it. Ecommerce Launch Formula to learn how to start an online business 

Facebook and Email Marketing Not Working for YOU? Try this...

Pat, if you can pick only one business model, knowing everything you know today to move forward with for the rest of your entrepreneur life, WHAT WOULD IT BE?   Listen to what Pat says here... Tweet this #patflynn on starting a passive income today. Click to listen http://podcast.estorecoaching.com/48 #ecommerce Key Points Discussed: His experience at the Marketing Impact Academy conference (hosted by Chalene Johnson).  How he created the Power Up Podcast course in 2.5 weeks for MIA. Perfection stops people in their tracks.   Creating an Online Course When we're creating an online course, we're faced with a daunting task of delivering a high-value course with lots of modules, videos, and downloads. Start with an online class that has enough information that will allow your members to get started with. Launch with a small number of beta members using the "create as you go" technique to provide valuable content only. A small audience will allow for a more intimate community when you first launch to allow you to address any issues with the course and to fix or enhance based on feedback. After purchase, make sure you have a welcome video to keep the engagement and motivation high. Get engaged by answering questions. Automate email by creating triggers for certain milestone of starting and completing the different modules. Add a community to keep each  Smart from Scratch Launch Strategy Using Convertkit, Pat segmented his launch using these 3 types of audiences.  By segmenting your audience, you can get specific and write emails that pertain to where the subscriber originated from. If your course is not yet ready to launch or closed for enrollment create a landing page to collect emails for a wait list Opt-ins from the companion course, "Will It Fly" book Current email list of subscribers who has previously indicated that they have not started their business yet, either through email survey or gated content on your blog post on topics.  What's stopping some people from starting their own business? Pat used the analogy of skydiving. Ecommerce Resources Mentioned: Smart Passive Income Smart from Scratch Ecommerce Launch Formula to learn how to build your first online business Learn how to get repeated buyers, more and bigger sales here. Sponsors: Get Drip.co to manage your email automation with a powerful rule-driven engine.  If you sign up with my partner link, I'll give you a $10 Amazon gift card for any paying plan.  If you're learning more about email marketing and automation for Ecommerce, click here. Do you currently run an online business but struggling to get sales? Click here to learn about getting actionable strategies to boost sales and sustain it. Ecommerce Launch Formula to learn how to start an online business Just get started...

Creating a Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn

Laura Petersen has taken lessons learned from a successful tutoring and test prep company to grow her businesses in a new passion: podcasting. [And an old one too: writing!] With Podtent Marketing, she helps mid-sized businesses with a high-touch, done-for-you service to launch a podcast and power a content marketing strategy. (PodtentMarketing.com) She is the Executive Producer of Brandon T. Adams’ podcast Live to Grind, an award-winning, twice-weekly podcast for entrepreneurs. And his business partner in Accelerant Media Group that contains the Live to Grind brand under its umbrella as well as full-service branding, crowdfunding, and marketing for elite clients. Her own podcast is called Copy That Pops and her #1 Amazon Best-Selling book Copywriting for Podcasters: How to Grow Your Podcast, Brand, and Business with Compelling Copy is available on Amazon (CopyThatPops.com/book). She created an effective course to help solopreneurs and entrepreneurs with small teams to earn the “#1 Amazon Best-Seller” title without the need for an email list or marketing budget. In addition to teaching, learning, and all things podcasting, Laura loves international travel (40 countries and counting!) with her husband and their dog Tuck, lots of garlic, and re-runs of the I.T. Crowd.   Tweet this @LaptopLaura shares her incredible Amazon Best Seller strategy on @eStoreCoaching podcast today!   Key Points Discussed: Three components to getting on Amazon's Best-Seller List Selecting the category Timing the release and pricing of the book Marketing Laura's process of creating her Kindle copy and then developing her physical paperback book using Create Space Laura's strategy is to price your Kindle book at $0.99 for the first three days (it's the cheapest you can have it in order to count as a best seller on Amazon in the paid category) from Monday to Wednesday. How many books did Laura have to sell in order to get on Amazon's best seller list?  Listen to the podcast to find out! Presale vs. sale Are there rules on for hitting the best seller list?  What format is the best to launch with? ie EPUB, pdf, physical book? Are there certain categories that are easier than others? Marketing plan Reviews may not help in getting your book listed on the best-seller list, but it does help in maintaining your position on the top seller list (in addition to sales) Book cover designs? Why should you price your Kindle book as paid instead of free? Ecommerce Resources Mentioned: Get Laura's "Amazon Best Seller Course" here Get you Kindle or paperback copy of "Copywriting for Podcasters: How to Grow Your Podcast, Brand, and Business with Compelling Copy" Create Space for creating your physical book Canva for book design Ecommerce Launch Formula to learn how to build your first online business Learn how to get repeated buyers, more and bigger sales here. Sponsors: Get Drip.co to manage your email automation with a powerful rule-driven engine.  If you sign up with my partner link, I'll give you a $10 Amazon gift card for any paying plan.  If you're learning more about email marketing and automation for Ecommerce, click here. Do you currently run an online business but struggling to get sales? Click here to learn about getting actionable strategies to boost sales and sustain it. Ecommerce Launch Formula to learn how to start an online business    

047 How to Hit Amazon's Bestseller List (on your first try)

Ben is the Blog Manager at CoSchedule. His specialties include blogging, content strategy, SEO, social media, email marketing, and more. When he's not hard at work helping people create better content, he can be found playing bass guitar, drinking fine beer, and chasing his dog around the house. Tweet this Ben Sailer shares the incredible Content Strategy that helped Coschedule build 180K.  Click to listen.   Download Ben Sailers's Social Media Calendar Template, Social Content Strategy Deck Template, and an infographic on the best times to post on social media. Key Points Discussed: Content Creation Strategy for Solopreneurs As a single operating entrepreneur, you wear many hats and managing your time is always a challenge.  Here's a simple process of you follow. Here's a simple process of you follow. Step 1 Many times were under the impression that we must deliver long 4,000 to 5,000 word blog post that can take days to write and deliver.  Instead of taking a deep dive, write 1,000 word post focusing on a specific topic or section of the bigger post and break that down into a series of post. Use free or freemium image editing software to create the images and graphics for the post. Step 2 If you spend a lot of time and energy on your content, you need to repurpose your content.  Don't write it and hope it will go viral.  Write a simple introduction to the post to your list of subscribers and a link to your post for them to continue reading. Step 3 Here's the key to growing your subscribers - create a downloadable pdf or bundle of template specific to your post that people would want (just like I'm doing here, click here to download it) in exchange for their email, this is called gated content.   Some other stuff we created How to decide on the type of resources and templates to create your gated material? What type of material converts well, ie how to checklist, templates? What is your marketing funnel for promoting your content? Ecommerce Resources Mentioned: CoSchedule Medium to syndicate your content Canva Infogram for making infographics Piktochart for making graphics Grammarly for grammar and spelling checker, this link go to a their "Best Plagiarism Checker & Proofreader" tool. Hemmingway App haven't tried it myself but looks like a neat tool for writing Sponsors: Get Drip.co to manage your email automation with a powerful rule-driven engine.  If you sign up with my partner link, I'll give you a $10 Amazon gift card for any paying plan.  If you're learning more about email marketing and automation for Ecommerce, click here. Do you currently run an online business but struggling to get sales? Click here to learn about getting actionable strategies to boost sales and sustain it. Ecommerce Launch Formula to learn how to start an online business    

046 Simple (and Effective) Way to Grow Your Email List with Ben Sailer

After AJ Wilcox began advertising on LinkedIn in 2011, he quickly discovered its powerful potential for business to business (B2B) advertisers. AJ was so passionate about the results he was seeing, he left his job to start B2Linked in 2014 and today's he shares his LinkedIn strategies so that you can get started! Tweet this AJ Wilcox shares his incredible LinkedIn advertising strategy on eStoreCoaching podcast today! Click to listen.   Download AJ's Mastering LinkedIn Advertising here  Key Points Discussed: Difference between LinkedIn vs. other social media ads? Expect to spend $6 to $8 per click, great for larger deals or sales of approximately $15,000, making this great of SaaS and consulting services.  B2B on Facebook, expect to spend about $0.80 to $1.00 per click. Split testing between Linkedin vs Facebook on the same ads Better conversion (8-30%) on Linkedin, higher cost Lower conversion (5-15%) on Facebook, lower cost How do you actually set up an account, do use your personal account or up a separate business account? Discussed a basic LinkedIn advertising funnel for any beginners to start with. Audience - narrow your audience with these 4 criteria's! Job title, job function, skill set, and groups. Content - what type of content do you want to show to your audience Messaging  What types of ads does LinkedIn support? Can you drive traffic to your LI page, actually is there such thing as a business page similar to FB or is it only your personal profile? LinkedIn tracking pixel Retargeting ads LinkedIn InMail ads Who is LinkedIn advertising good for? Shares his "why" on starting your own business, GOLD! Ecommerce Resources Mentioned: B2 Linked LinkedIn Sponsors: Get Drip.co to manage your email automation with a powerful rule-driven engine.  If you sign up with my partner link, I'll give you a $10 Amazon gift card for any paying plan.  If you're learning more about email marketing and automation for Ecommerce, click here. Do you currently run an online business but struggling to get sales? Click here to learn about getting actionable strategies to boost sales and sustain it.    

045 Mastering LinkedIn Advertising with AJ Wilcox

Checkout today's episode to see how Michael Laluna transformed his fathers business on selling imprinted apparel to a membership website, http://www.crownprintsclub.com/ If you're interested in setting your online store in 30 days, sign up here at www.estorecoaching.com/build  Today's sponsor is 3dcart and Convertkit, both with free 30 day trial.

044 Creating a Membership Site with Michale Laluna from Crownprints Club

The art of writing engaging email is no longer a "simple" task that you can just check off.  It involves planning out your campaign sequence, writing out the message specific to your segment, delivering your email and following up.  Today on the show, we have Brendan Dubbles from Ontraport to talk to us about everything we need to know about getting our emails delivered to the inbox of our customers or prospects.  You work hard on setting it up, listen to how we can increase the chances it delivered. In this show, we talk about:What deliverability is?Why it matters & the cost of ignorance**The different types of issues inbox v spam box v promotions folder v blocked out rightHow anyone can tell if they have a problem (most don't know)Fixing an issueSetting up systems so that the issue never returnsThe outlook of deliverability for the next 5 years and the impact it will have on anyone selling onlineDiversifying communication methods here - the importance of email, SMS, and social in a cohesive strategy)SPONSORS: 3dcart - use this link to get 1 month free on one of the best all in one Ecommerce platform.LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Mail Tester to test the spammyness of your email Ontraport, Convertkit and Mailchimp as an Email Service Provider Ontrapalooza 250ok ReturnPath Litmus for email testing SpamAssassinBuild your website in 30 days!Have an online business? Join our Facebook community

043 Email Deliverability with Lead Post Master of Ontraport, Brendan Dubbles

Checkout my conversation with Robert Stanley of Directfix.com.  He has been in the business since the Palm Pilot days (what is that?) and had a great conversation with him.  Here are some quick bullet points on what was discussed, but please listen to the show for all the great tips that he had to offer.Started in 1998 selling Palm Pilot parts on eBay before envolving into a website, powertothepalm as a how-to informational siteIn the year 2000, he decided to making it into a company as gethightech.comstarting with selling 2 partsTake apart videos with the first iPhone that went viralMiva Merchant, started with using Big Step. Used hostasaruas as a host and used MivaBuild and designed his own website before outsourcing the new redesign to Miva a couple of years agoSPONSORS: 3dcart - use this link to get 1 month free on one of the best all in one Ecommerce platform.LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:Ecommerce Platform: Mivarobbystanley.com more info about RobiPhone 4s screen replacement his Youtube videoHostasaurus for website hosting8x8 for telephonySearch Spring for advanced search for your websiteCrazyegg for heatmapsGoogle analyticsYoutube, create your own contentGoogle adwords for remarketing 

042 Robert Stanely with Directfix

www.estorecoaching.com/41 for show notes. Today's sponsor is 3dcart, get month free using this link for one of the best all in one ecommerce platform.

041 Cory from Maya Jewelry on Designing and Sourcing

Running a Successful Contest 1. Run contest on your own site, see www.estorecoaching.com/contest to see an example of Gleam.io in action.  In general, length of contest should be anywhere from one to 3 or  4 weeks.  Too short, you might not get enough participants, too long, people might not want to enter because it's too far.    Experiment to see which length works for you.  After someone enters a contest, they are more likely to browse your website then if your contest were on a Facebook tab. 2. Choose an attractive prize.  Pick something of value and relevant from your site.  Service, coaching sessions or product base if that is something you're selling.  For example, if you are Zappo's, a pair of shoe or one hour coaching session for swimming. 3. Use previous entrants to re-enter the new contest and share.  If they love your first contest, they have to love it even more the second time around?  If you know the rule of compounding for investing, it's the same concept. 4. Turn activity into sales.  Take advantage of the traffic coming to the contest.  Get optins and a newsletter going to promote your brand.  If you're reaching new customers though the contest, they probably don't know much about your brand.  Get them into an email sequence and even offer them relevant discounts for their first order. SPONSOR Today's sponsor of The Build. Market. Grow. Ecommerce Podcast is Convertkit. Get 1 month free when you sign up here.LINKS MENTIONED ON THIS SHOW Try out Gleam.io for free now and don't forget to enter for a chance to win one year of the PRO plan for free! ServerBear, Stuart's comparison site.

040 Creating Awesome Contests with Stuart McKeown from Gleam.io

Listen to how Asim and Henna Khan built their wedding store, weddingfavorites.com over 16 years ago.   Their business idea is focused on the modern and contemporary look to wedding favorites as their market separator because they both enjoyed arts, crafts and planning for their weddings. They used a drop-ship model to start out with items that they didn't have capacity, hand made some products like velum envelopes and get some supplies and customize it before shipping to the customer. My favorite quote: “Replatform sucks!” - Asum Khan Bookstrapped and built the website development and Henna with the design and photography before hiring out these aspects of the project when they were more profitable Tips from AsimHave good content, write for the customer.Cross promote with other companiesPerserverenceCreate a weekly and monthly planGood health and workout routineDon't forget to enter the contest to win some free stuff from Wedding Favorites!  www.estorecoaching.com/contestSPONSORS: Grasshopper to get $75 off any telephony plan to run your customer support for your online business!LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Ecommerce Platform:  Miva Chat: Tawk.to Order Management: Stone Ddge Order Management Email Service Provider: Constant Contact All about shipping with Anthony Bottoli on episode 8. Recommended Books by Asim: The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New RichGetting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free ProductivityThe Six-Pack Diet Plan: The Secrets to Getting Lean Abs and a Rock-Hard Body Permanently

039 Asim Khan from Wedding Favorites | Starting an online business with a full-time job

Listen to how the lovely couple Michael and Momo Fensterstock were traveling through Southeast Asia and discovered an exotic, botanical fragrance that doubles as insect repellent. It smelled so good and worked so well during their flight back, they started working on their business plan. Their initial tips and strategies includes:Their marketing efforts in the earlier beginning involved family and friend outreachDoor knocking retails shops all over the tri-state areaSpent time marketing and reaching out to influencersUsed referral marketing with their existing customersSPONSORS: Use Grasshopper.com toll a toll free number for your business and transcribed messages when you're on the go!  Click here to get $75 off ANY plan.LINKS AND RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Ecommerce Platform: Shopify (start your free trial today) Email Service Provider: Constant Contact and Mailchimp Other tools: Olark for chat and Google Docs

038 Michael Fensterstock from Aromaflage - Building a functional fragrance business from his honeymoon

Gets specific with ACTIONABLE advice on how to BUILD, MARKET and GROW your Ecommerce website from his 14 years of online experience and with other entrepreneurs who has done it themselves.

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The eStore Coaching Podcast - Build. Market. Grow. | The 3 P...

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