Ask an Expert Dec 15: Anurag Avula, Jeremy Khoo & Rachel Chan

PayPal_Luna
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Hello there and welcome to our first Ask an Expert session!

 

Once in a while we sit down with e-commerce experts across the region, and this time we are excited to have some of the most experienced and inspirational online business owners around! Quick bio:

 

  • Anurag Avula: Ex Paypal APAC Senior Director, currently CEO & CoFounder at Shopmatic Just about the best person for you to ask technical & design questions about online launch, operation and growth.

 

 

* Unfortunately Jeremy is not currently available to answer questions, but he shall be able to response in January. 

 

The three experts will be around on this thread to answer questions in the next 2-3 weeks. They will also sit down in a panel discussion later that will be filmed and uploaded.

 

Before we get started, I have a small surprise for you: We are giving away 10x US$100 Google Adwords vouchers to people with the most interesting questions! So you will be rewarded for getting your problems solved, how does that sound?

 

Detailed T&Cs for the giveaways are found here. If you haven’t read the board sticky post, I encourage you to do so. Now let’s get started!

Luna

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PayPal_Luna
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Hi all,

 

Thanks for your questions. Keep them coming - but here's a gentle reminder for everyone to keep the questions focus on eCommerce topics including starting, running or growing an online business. Would be best if they are directed to our experts and relevant to their area of expertise as well. 

 

Also please post in English only. Headstart is a space for merchants from across the region - so let's keep the discussion open and relevant to everyone, including our experts. 

 

If my post or any other was helpful, please show your appreciation by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution.

Luna

If my post or any other was helpful, please show your appreciation by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution.

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Boxingpartner
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Hi! we are a newly e commerce startup called Boxingpartner who is inspired by innovation to make a better world.

I saw your note and thouhgt maybe can share some insights here:

 

1. What kind of person makes a successful entrepreneur?

Must have the never die spirit...have the courange to stand up to fight again everytime you failed.


2. How do I determine whether I am capable of starting a business?

Internal factor is what I mentioned above, external factor is about finance& support you get along the way. You would need funding to run/ expand a business. But if you have the correct internal quality, you can overcome the external factor.


3. How can I obtain cash to maintain and grow my business?

Looks for partnership, learn to write a business proposal to sell about your idea, and yourself.


4. What makes a successful marketing strategy?

This is a very broad topic. On the very high level, marketing strategy is very much depending on the fund you have. 


5. How can I improve customer service in my business?

Listen to the customer, take every feedback especially the negative one very carefully and improve from time to time. In the same time learn to manage some senseless customer. 

At certain point, you will need to choose to focus on certain category of your customers.

 

Hopefully my 2 cents of input can help. Wishing you all the best for your future undertaking. 

 

regards,

Bryan Tan (Co-founder and CEO of Boxingpartner

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RachelChan
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@Referral wrote:

Thank you have having this great Ask an Expert Q&A session.

 

I love talking to beautiful entrepreneur like Rachel Chan and below are some of my questions for you.

 

  • Being a founder & CEO at LIVE3LY, where & how did you get your idea or concept for this business?
  • You loves meeting like-minded people and on a look out for business partnerships. What do you look for in business partner and usually where do you meet these potential partners?
  • You mentioned “Team sizes matter”. What’s your ideal size and what your team consist of? And what do you look for in your team?
  • You also mentioned “When handling money internationally, make sure you do it in a cost-effective way”. Can you share with us on this in-depth? What mistakes did you make during the startup and how do you make this more cost-effective later?

 

Thank you



Hi Referral,

 

Thank you for your compliments. My answers may not be applicable for all situations, but I hope they will help provide some insights to your entrepreneur journey. All the best! 🙂

 

  • Being a founder & CEO at LIV3LY, where & how did you get your idea or concept for this business?

There are existing platforms available out there and my "idea" is not new. Through the years of experience in a sport event company, challenges and task that I've took on, speaking to people on the ground, I've found areas that are lacking or could be done better. 

 

  • You loves meeting like-minded people and on a look out for business partnerships. What do you look for in business partner and usually where do you meet these potential partners?

My search for partners is simple. Recognise your weakness and find a business partner who has the strength that you are weak in. To find a business partner, you can start from your circle of friends, your work contacts, networking sessions, etc... there is no limit to where you can find potential partners. I've heard of a true story where the business partner was "wooed" in the ladies restroom!

 

  • You mentioned “Team sizes matter”. What’s your ideal size and what your team consist of? And what do you look for in your team?

As a tech company, it's important to have the following areas covered: - Business Development, System Design & Development, Client Servicing & Support, Finance and Marketing. As a start up with a lean budget, every team member's role is crucial. You cannot afford to have a weak link that has potential to slow down/jeopardise the business growth. Some traits that I look for, other than their domain knowledge, are the eagerness to learn new things, pro-active, team player aka get along well with the rest of the team, problem solver, etc. 

 

  • You also mentioned “When handling money internationally, make sure you do it in a cost-effective way”. Can you share with us on this in-depth? What mistakes did you make during the startup and how do you make this more cost-effective later?

My business operation is unique whereby I collect my client event's registration fee on behalf. For example, LIV3LY's business is in Singapore and the event is held in Thailand. I have to collect registration fee in Thai Bath, pay out to the event organiser in Thai Bath and the rest of the fee charges will need to convert back to LIV3LY in Singapore Dollars. On LIV3LY's part, to convert Thai Bath into Singapore Dollars, there is a cost incurred in exchange rate. On the client's part, there is a TT transfer fee incurred. I've spoken to PayPal, our banks as well as my finance team, together we have 2 - 3 workable solutions for the client to choose from.

 

One of the many mistakes that I have made during the start up is I was too eager to hire without any confirm deals in yet. There were several months of sleepless nights watching my bank figures diminishing at a rapid rate. So, I took a risk by hiring a sale person to increase sales. I've cut cost by stopping some projects with my vendors and pass on these projects to my team, meaning they have to take on more roles than their usual scope. Drive the team to develop new features that bring in new source of revenues. With some luck, we've pulled through the difficult phrase.

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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@maurisrx wrote:

Hello,

 

Thank you for the opportunity.

 

My question is directed to Rachel Chan.

 

What are the best ways to market products on the internet with minimal budget?

And what percentage of total budget do you recommend to put for marketing and advertising?

 

Thanks!

Mauris



Hi Mauris,

 

Start with a natural channel that does not cost you any marketing fee first. For example, posting and sharing articles in social media, determine the key words to search for your website and place them in your website meta, through referrals/sponsorship.

 

 

Some of the marketing tools I've used which cost nothing are:-

1) My product, LIV3LY, sells registration support to event organisers. This, in turn, allow the users to get know about the name LIV3LY during the registration process. 

2) I offer a sponsorship value to my client and in return, I get marketing values back from their event publicity.

3) My website is optimised for Google search

4) Post and share articles about LIV3LY through facebook

5) Build a database that you can send EDM monthly to engage them

 

In my opinion, spend on marketing and advertising only when you start having a stable revenue stream. Don't just spend without a plan in mind, work with an agency/your team to come up with a campaign to achieve the outcome you want.

 

All the best! 🙂

 

 

Your sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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@realcc wrote:

Hi All,

 

I would like to ask a question to Rachel Chan, director of Eggsplore. It is quite interesting to know more about Eggsplore business in Web Design & Development. As we know, there are many companies out there offering the same service like Eggsplore. Why did you go into the business you currently own? How did you differentiate yourself from competition?

 

Many thanks.

 

Kind Regards,

 

 

Andreas Kurniawan



Hi Andreas,

 

I've started working as a web designer for a sports event company 10 years ago. I did what I know best which is Web Design and Development in the mass participation sporting industry. 🙂

 

Agree with you that there are many companies out there doing web design. My niche is in supporting sports events website & registration which has its set of unique requirements & funtionality. I have a bigger vision than just to serve our client's needs. I wanted to grow the sports community in Asia through LIV3LY. This industry is emerging and many startups want to organise their own event. The seasoned event organisers are constantly finding ways to attract participants to their event yearly.

 

Other than a strong database of runners that LIV3LY have, we provide appropriate advise to our clients on what make the best race experience, what do participants look for in a race, how to prevent and manage complaints from the participants, etc. Most importantly, we take over their load to manage online registrations and payments. I believe our clients appreciate the added value service that we provide, not just a system provider per se.

 

Thank you for your question!

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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Hi Nariyo,

 

Interesting question 🙂

 

There's the tangible risk and intangible risk. I would say be prepared to risk losing your time with friends and family for the first few years of running your business. For tangible risk, whatever I have put into this business... money, time and effort, that's the risk I am prepared to lose overnight. 

 

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying that I am set out to fail, but the mindset to start a business has to be fearless.

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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@Dynemix wrote:

Hi there...

 

i was using paypal for a years...

and paypal is giving me so many advantage for my e-commerce website..

 

as a growing online bussiness, there is alot of dark spot ive been through,

maybe the starting darkspot is how to make people visiting our website and advertise-it (through social media, advertising company, door to door)

but after you got traffic to your website there alot of thing that you have to worry about :

 

1. User trust

2. stable and responsive website

3. hospitable

4. security for the owner website and client

 

ive been working from the 1 to 3, but the number 4 its really hard to do it,

securing our website is the hardest thing i have ever know,

luckily i have paypal who will be protecting data client, which make people really trust to buy in my online bussiness website.

 

all i want to ask the expert is,

how to make a super safe website (from many aspect) like : backdoor, ddos, checking the vulnurable code at our site, caching our site so more responsively, how to get a green bar SSL (make visitor more feel safe) , bruteforce, etc.

 

its really important when your e-commerce is growing significant and you have alot of rival.

 



Hi Dynemix,

 

Do you collect personal info of your user in your website? If yes, you may need to secure your website in these areas.

 

1) Have a solid backup plan in place should your website gets compromised.

2) Get your developer to secure your system's source code and conduct a penetration test

3) Check out Cloudflare and consider using their service. They pretty much cover all the concerns you have on security.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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@edgarang wrote:

Hi guys,

 

i see that all 3 of you have really great businesses and i would love to get advice from you guys regarding my e-commerce business.

 

Given that Singapore is a rather small market and the fact that I am currently in a niche industry (Martial Arts retailer), expanding my business and getting more sales is a problem because there is a huge portion of consumers who love to shop offline as this is an item that they want to feel and try on. Similar to the clothing industry, one of the difficulty in converting sales is cause by the consumers' need to feel the product. The issue becomes more significant when the product that I am selling is a high-ticket purchase ($100 - $500 for a pair of boxing gloves).

 

For local purchases, it is easy to resolve this issue by just having a good refund policy or even a physical store to try on the product. The main issue comes in when I want to expand my outreach internationally to other parts of Asia. Even though Singapore holds the reputation of having high quality product, I feel that it still a major deterrence to purchase a high-ticket item online for international customers. In this situation, what would you guys suggest that I do ?

Let me know if you need to know more background about my business. 

 

Thank you for all your opinions ! The vast amount of experience you guys have will definitely be helpful for me ! 

 

Hope to hear from you guys soon!! This is my website www.muaythaisgshop.com



Hi Edgar,

 

Before you explore into each countries, spend some time to understand your target group size, spending power and cost of living. I've faced issues where my pricing in SIngapore does not work in Malaysia. What I did was to understand my client's budget, my competitor's pricing and market size in Malaysia... from there, I find ways to lower my cost to offer a competitive pricing.

 

My suggestion to you is to explore working with a local high-end retailer where your consumers can try out the gloves/collect in store upon purchase online. Probably invest in marketing with local famous boxers to endorse your gloves, consumers are willing to spend big ticket items online if they see celebrities endorse your product.

 

Just my two cents worth of thoughts. All the best!

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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Hi Joayde,

 

Based on experience, it is not easy getting investors. In my opinion, I am not too worried about people taking my idea and run off with it. If someone does that, it only proves that my idea is good! 🙂

 

To put to perspective, there are tons of business doing the same thing. For every new concept, other businesses will sprout like mushroom copying the concept. Instead of worrying about competition and competitive advantage against those with big finance backing, start the ball rolling and work out a business plan. What is your main source of revenue? How long will it take to build your system before you can start selling? How many manpower do you need to kickstart this business? If you do not have the financial means now, what can you do on the sideline to bring in revenue to support this business?

 

What makes a business successful is not just the idea, but the work that you put in, the partners you work with and business strategy you deploy throughout your entrepreneur journey.

 

Hope these questions will get you thinking and most importantly, just get going. You will learn and fine-tune along the way... in no time, you can look back and realise how much you have achieved. All the best!

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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Hi Marie,

 

I've started my business plan by reading this book, http://www.amazon.com/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers/dp/0470876417

 

Hope this can help you get started in your planning stage.

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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@florenceblooms wrote:

Hi Ms. Chan,

 

I am Angie, and I own www.florenceblooms.com. It is now in Open Cart platform.  I notice that I got more sales when it was just in plain HTML prgrammed by Filipino web designer.

Do you think being in Open Cart affected my sales? Open Cart, also bugs down when a lot of products are installed. So, my website will be down for days until I contact TemplateMonster.

 

What do think is the best platform for selling online?

 

What are the qualities of a good online store?

 

Regards,

Angie



Hi Angie,

 

From your description, you need to ensure that immediate support is readily available. A website that is slow could be due to the web hosting enviornment, ask your web hosting company for advise to optimised your website performance. To have a website down for days is not a good impression for your customers, talk to TemplateMonster to ensure that your website is running 24hrs. If the problem persists, change your vendor. 

 

Some good qualities of an online store that I think is important is as follows:-

1) Easy to navigate and well categories products

2) Fast response to customers' enquiries

3) Secure site with SSL cert, no downtime, security test conducted

4) Prompt delivery with quality product

5) Periodic promotions to drive sales

 

Hope this helps. All the best!

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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Hello Rachel,

 

Thank you for your interesting and trueful answers, especially on your “several months of sleepless nights watching my bank figures diminishing at a rapid rate”. Yes, this indeed is very true for most start-up.

 

Hope you don’t mind on these follow up questions; now that you have go through all these ups & downs, what advise will you give to your son/ daughter about their career life (with the intention of not going over the same mistakes and heart ache you went through)? And what things do you want them to learn from you? (Value, skills set anything..)


 

 

As a parent, I am more concern about their character building. I hope to instill positive attitudes such as driven by passion, always ready to take on challenges, have a quick mind to find solutions, not be afraid of the unknown and most importantly, to be able to pick themselves up from failures. I don't think I will stop them from making the same mistake as I did, they need to learn things the hard way. I can only guide and advise to a certain extend. At the end of the day, it's their choice and freedom to choose the way they want to live their lives. Experience it, learn from it and grow to be a better & stronger person. 

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RachelChan
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@KL2015 wrote:

Dear e-commerce experts,

 

Please rank the following factors from top to bottom, top being the no. 1 important factor, for growing my business globally

 

  • e-commerce web site for mobile browser and desktop browser
  • m-commerce mobile app for Android
  • m-commerce mobile app for iOS
  • advertising via Google AdWords
  • advertising via Facebook
  • SEO
  • product description/data sheet/web page/mobile app in multiple languages
  • live chat operated by live persons
  • telephone hotline for sales and support
  • setting up company in Hong Kong and a bank account in Hong Kong to withdraw money from PayPal into HK bank account
  • hire sales team at each region e.g. SEA, East Asia, EU, etc. to meet customers face-to-face
  • holding web conference/meeting with customers at different time zones
  • accepting payment in different currencies
  • courier company with strong internaional presence to ship products to customer wordwide
  • (please add, your input is most welcome)

Thank you.

 

Yours faithfully,

K.L.

 


 

Hi K.L.,

 

There's no right or wrong way to grow your business globally. It really depends on what advantage/disadvantage do you have currently and from there, you can make a better decision what should come first. Take for example, LIV3LY. Having a lean budget, I am more focus on getting the system up and running so that I can sell my services. Once the clientel starts streaming in, then the support should be in place to ensure the clients/consumers are happy. I couldn't stress enough the importance of focusing in your homeground and do it well before jumping into other regions.

 

Unlike USA/Europe, Asia uses different languages, has different currencies, has different culture of spending, has users who accustom to onsite/atm/online/mobile purchasing. This makes expansion into each region much more challenging, but that doesn't mean it is not possible. You will get the sense of what's important to do first as you grow your business. 

 

All the best!

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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RachelChan
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@stepchoo wrote:

Hi Rachel,

 

You mentioned in your Headstart article that "Be fearless and believe in what you do.".

 

If a person was fearless, believed in it, did all he could, but still yield no appreciable results, what would you tell him?


 

 

Hi Stepchoo,

 

One, meet more people for advise and two, get help from people who have specific domain knowledge.

 

For advice, look for mentors who can give you advices why results are not as expected. Chat with your clients about your services/products, what is lacking, has it solve a problem, does it meet the demand, etc. Check out your competitors and see how they run their business. Other than just to differentiate your business from them, are you on par in terms of service level, pricing point, etc? Last but not least, speak to your target audience and get their feedback.

 

To get help, there are two ways - to hire a staff or engage a consultant that you need help to get the result you want.

 

If all else fails, consider pivoting your business. Pivoting can be a tool to discover additional growth--growth you might otherwise have overlooked.

One of my favourite article about famous business pivots - http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonnazar/2013/10/08/14-famous-business-pivots/

 

All the best to your business!

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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Shopmatic
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@claude741110 wrote:

Its a good thing you guys came up with an integrated solutions in terms of mobilizing a business into a less intricate web based business solution. However, modes and terms of payment were quite viable thus offered by a growing additional entrepreneurs catering same services, my question is.

 

Since business entities are your major target clients (Shopmatic and Paypal in particular), can you extend your service starting from web and system design up to business operations analysis, problem identification, and finally recommendation of solutions in technical, operations and financial (accounting) aspects? As we all know that most newcomers in the business world can easily disregard such matters wherein miscalculations and misprojections were a common mistake. I mean, can you somehow provide a visual or just in a standard form wherein significant figures of the business can be clearly observed? Best if summaries and projections are also provided, just a mere guide for those who are newbies in the industry.

 

Best    



Hi. Your point is indeed very valid. Most businesses tend to gloss over the intricacies of Accounting, Corporate Structuring and Regulatory aspects. Its important that customers are aware of such requirements and we do provide for a simple guide on our platform and guide customers to the experts in the field for your specific countries.

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@astarplin wrote:

Hello iam Astaria Shaine from Jakarta.. I want to ask about Fashion Online Business as iam still newbie and selling online so slow and i almost desperate 😞

I want to ask to Anurag Avula as Ex Paypal APAC Senior Director, (currently CEO & CoFounder at Shopmatic Just about the best person for you to ask technical & design questions about online launch, operation and growth.)

 

After i struggle in online business fashion locally, im thinking try to sell to neighbour country ( becoz i think nowadays is global already, but the problem i have got is about fee transport to move the product to sell it, competitive price.. After i calculate, this is not easy to do coz after move it, the product price become expensives and i dont have any idea how to solve this selling becoz transport too high expensive... Any share for this..

 

 

Thanks and regards,

Tari



Hi Astaria. Your question is indeed a very valid   one. Usually cross border sales are the most rewarding and profitable for sellers. Most customers are happy to pay for the shipping charges that they will pay for products that are unique to the seller. In our case, we have negotiated rates with our shipping partners that transfers the benefit of lower pricing to our customers. There are also other innovative forms of Shipping that are very cost effective compared to the traditional forms of logistics.

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@Dermatocare wrote:

Anurag,

 

 

This is Dr Surbhi, founder of www.dermatocare.com.

 

I would like to know the opportunity areas, market demand, and possible difficulties with regards to selling CUSTOMISED online products in India. Let me provide you background I am working on making a skin care product line that can be customized based on the skin type and concerns of users.

As per your experience, is there demand of such customized products in India?

What kind of challenges we might face with regards to selling them online?

What kind of difficulties we might face when it come to customer satisfaction?



Dear Dr Surbhi. Cosmetics & related products are a great vertical to be in India. With its very young population ( over 60% of its population is under the age of 30 years) the need and awareness of products such as yours will find preference in India. Typical for India, it would be essential for your success to have people try your products and your marketing programs should factor for that. There are also regulations to consider when selling online for cosmetic products. The customisation part of your product will be relevant as customers do appreciate that your products are tailored for their skin types.

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@ozzi101 wrote:

dear mr. Anurag Avula, I want to ask you some questions related to marketing.

 

1. How is the strategy in creating a system which can provide our business continuous sales?

2. when we do a trade negotiation, what factors or elements we can take the benefit of to maximize the percentage of succes?

 

thank you.

 

 



To get continuos sales, one should have as many online sales channels to reach as many customer as possible - right from your inividual webstore to selling on marketplaces to social channels. You should also have your channels of communication via email marketing etc. Using social channels to market your products is a cost effective method to raise awareness of your product and use search words etc to sell your products.

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PayPal_Luna
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Hi all,

 

Thanks for your questions. Keep them coming - but here's a gentle reminder for everyone to keep the questions focus on eCommerce topics including starting, running or growing an online business. Would be best if they are directed to our experts and relevant to their area of expertise as well. 

 

Also please post in English only. Headstart is a space for merchants from across the region - so let's keep the discussion open and relevant to everyone, including our experts. 

 

If my post or any other was helpful, please show your appreciation by giving kudos or accepting it as a solution.

Luna

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marierose14
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Hello experts, my name is marie i'm 25 years old and i want to start my own business online related to teaching english. My problem is i don't really know how to start. I don't have any background in business and i don't know how to market it. what advice can you give me? I badly need it. And i will really appreciate it 🙂 thank you!

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RachelChan
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Hi Marie,

 

I've started my business plan by reading this book, http://www.amazon.com/Business-Model-Generation-Visionaries-Challengers/dp/0470876417

 

Hope this can help you get started in your planning stage.

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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j1o2t3
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U need one great think to start own business u can start your business as u wish but one thing is very important your self confident if u have self confident then u success your business
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AISA
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Google Adwords have been losing their ad revenue to Facebook since small businesses find it cheaper to be able to have a chance to show to relevant prospects what they have to offer on Facebook.

Do you think SEO is still worth a role in today's market for small businesses? Social marketing seems to be the go to solution for small businesses nowadays. 

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wadot_30
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Hi! Greqt day!, My name is LORD EDDIESON DATARIO, I would like to know how can I maximize the use of paypall to further boost my dream business! "EDWARD COMPUTER SERVICES"
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Ruth2
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Under Manage Users I've created an added "Freelancer" as my web developer who must integrate the API and Shopping cart functions for my ecommerce site.

I don't want him having access to ANYTHING other than what he needs to enable API integrations.

However when I log out of my account and use his log in creds I can SEE Transactions and other things even though I've only ticked the box 'API Integrations' within the Manage Users tab.  How do I fix this so he can't access Anything other than 'API integrations' pathways?

Also for my ecommerce site which is also a 'Membership Site' I need a functional order page, beyond just a redirect to the paypal payment page.  

 

I have a Verified Business Account and my company is based in the Philippines. Unfortunately I cannot use PayPal Payments Pro because my business is a Philiippine Registered business and not a US or Canadian, or UK business.  And I can't use Authorize.net for the same reasons since they don't support functionality with Philippine based companies. ;-(

Are you aware of a reputable processor /merchant solution that integrates with Pay Pal businesses for Philippine based companies? Or is there something I'm overlooking here?

 

It seems like the common providers used by many in the digital marketing space, Authorize.net, etc only integrate for US, Canadian, UK, Australian based companies.  This is a BIG snag in my business planning that I did not foresee and my web developer is simply insisting on a direct PayPal page which is undersirable for me since my site is scheduled to have Upsells, Cross sells etc, and my membersite platform (ClickFunnels or Membermouse) uses 1 click upsells etc 



Thanks in advance for any feedback,
Ruth

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Joayde
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Probably with the small business that I have but having the potential of becoming a multi million business but lacking enough finances could not make it to launch the business at its potential therefore, the need to look for potential investors through multimedia and market the business to a wider scope of possible business hunting individuals who are likewise interested into venturing to new business concepts, my question is how could I for one market my business to prospective investors on the internet without the need to disclose the very secret of the business since you and I believe that their are individuals or groups who are looking for opporrunities but at the same time their are individuals or groups who pretends but then the motive is to get the idea or concept of the business and to open up their own leaving the inventor or the business concept presentor losing their idea to people who have the financial capability.
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RachelChan
Contributor
Contributor

Hi Joayde,

 

Based on experience, it is not easy getting investors. In my opinion, I am not too worried about people taking my idea and run off with it. If someone does that, it only proves that my idea is good! 🙂

 

To put to perspective, there are tons of business doing the same thing. For every new concept, other businesses will sprout like mushroom copying the concept. Instead of worrying about competition and competitive advantage against those with big finance backing, start the ball rolling and work out a business plan. What is your main source of revenue? How long will it take to build your system before you can start selling? How many manpower do you need to kickstart this business? If you do not have the financial means now, what can you do on the sideline to bring in revenue to support this business?

 

What makes a business successful is not just the idea, but the work that you put in, the partners you work with and business strategy you deploy throughout your entrepreneur journey.

 

Hope these questions will get you thinking and most importantly, just get going. You will learn and fine-tune along the way... in no time, you can look back and realise how much you have achieved. All the best!

 

Yours sincerely,

Rachel

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