REWORKING: The Giant But....

#2. "The internet has dramatically reduced start-up costs for new firms."

I totally agree.

YES! with a giant and rather lame BUT!: (that doesn't sound right, does it? I assure you I'm not talking about anyone in particular....)

Yes, but....

I'm not 'starting'. I'm more like a guy who has trained for a marathon all his life and is told that he could also do sprints if he was willing to do a bit more training.

I do use the internet extensively on the buying front. I do nearly all my orders online, now. I have better management of the costs, more assurance of in-stock numbers and prices, I can order at my convenience, and on and on.

It's hard to imagine running my store nowadays without being able to do my orders online.

20 years ago, I had to either: get ahold of a rep on the phone and order product verbally, or fill out an order form which I sent off snail mail. In neither case was there much feedback. So I might order, say, my budget of a 1000.00 worth of product, only to receive 600.00 worth of it. I could never tell my customers for sure if I was going to get what they ordered. Very inefficient.

I won't go on. It's obvious to everyone by now.

I'm also much more in touch with what's happening today. 20 years ago, something I might be selling slowly could be selling like hotcakes elsewhere. I'd constantly get cleaned out of 'hot' product by outsiders before the locals were even aware of it. That kind of thing. I can keep up with what's happening locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

Again, I won't go on. It's obvious to everyone.

The Giant But is -- I don't sell on the internet.

Every step of the way I've underestimated the internet, so I suspect I'm underestimating the internet on the selling front as well. But I've arranged my worklife so that I'm working full time doing what I'm doing.

As I've always said about the question "WHY DON'T YOU....?" the answer in business always comes back to; Time, Space, Money, and Effort.

In this case it's mostly time and effort. I have the product, so money really isn't the issue. I have a full store, so space really isn't the issue.

The biggest two components to my giant BUT is: lack of technical ability. Lack of wheeler-dealer mentality.

Why don't I just hire someone? Because I've learned that anything I start, I may have to finish myself no matter how many people I hire. In the end, it's MY store, and I need to be able to do everything that needs to be done.

I'm probably through trying to promise people a 'Full-time" job. The last two or three people who I were technically adept and were full-time left for better paying and more prestigious jobs.
Even my Point-Of-Sale computer has become a big 5000.00 flop. I struggle with it, then throw up my hands and let it sit there.

But it's easy, all you techies say.

No......no it isn't.

If I was starting out in business, I would make sure I was technically capable of using all the resources at hand, or I wouldn't start.

The Giant But -- I'm near the end of my career, I know how to sell in my store and I've learned to maximize my efforts. I don't seem to have the promotion, wheeler-dealer mentality I see manifest on the online selling sites. The times I've tried to sell on E-Bay have been big fat flops.

Oh, I'm sure I could learn to sell online if I took the time and effort. Maybe I could learn to be technically adept, if I took the time and effort.

But time and effort are what I'm short on these days.