Thoughts from attending E-Commerce Seminar Previews.

There was one last preview I attended prior to my trip to Australia and that is one that talks about E-Commerce. This last talk was draining because the trainer seemed to be quite good at saying nothing for quite a number of hours. Because this seemed to me like an entrepreneurship workshop, I can't really rely on my financial knowledge to deconstruct the talk.

I will instead paint the general idea of how what you are likely to learn in this course :

a) First you source for things to sell from a wholesaler.
b) Then you bring a few units it into your home and keep it there.
c) After which you attempt to sell it on a modern sales platform on the Web.

The rest of the preview, the trainer addresses the crowd's objection. If you do not wish to perform fulfilment, then you can engage in drop-shipping the items direct to your customer. If you don't know what to sell, the trainer will even recommend a product to you, potentially creating a conflict of interest as he may get kickbacks from the manufacturer.

A couple of things bugged me about this talk :

There are generally ridiculous promises of five-digit revenues you can potentially earn every month reselling items on sales platforms. It may actually be true, but take note that revenues do not equal profits and the audience went away not really knowing how much this opportunity is rally worth. I am inclined to believe that the sales figures were grossly exaggerated. Big numbers are possible, but just not probable.

A seasoned eye can often tell when the trainer hires people as fake customers. A real customer does not enthusiastically run to the booth to register for the course like the kind of psycho who shows up Anthony Robbins seminars.

Business and financial courses cost real money.

If you really want to fake an enthusiastic crowd, show them how to hesitate before deciding to buy a course. In my own preview last night, one customer did indeed rush to the booth to sign up immediately - She was the talk of the town for the rest of the evening from my colleagues.

As fan service for this blog, I am actually going to recommend a business idea right here for anyone to address. The folks who produce Dungeons and Dragons recently made a dick move to grant Target early access to sell the D&D Essentials Kit.

I am putting the link right here :

https://www.target.com/p/dungeons-dragons-essentials-kit-game/-/A-76151594

I have been trying to get a copy through auctions but may be stuck paying double for this game. There exist a business opportunity for the next two months to bulk buy from Target and arbitrage to local gamers in Singapore. If you engage in this trade, let me know - I want to buy from you !

For folks who want cheaper access to business ideas, I strongly suggest reading Chris Guillebeau's 100 Side Hustles.

https://www.amazon.com/100-Side-Hustles-Unexpected-Quitting-ebook/dp/B07H752CPH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2QXSTAKGD3EB1&keywords=100+side+hustles+chris+guillebeau&qid=1562287598&s=gateway&sprefix=chris+guillebeau%2Caps%2C1551&sr=8-1

It is impossible to read this book and not have some novel business ideas of you own to earn some side income. This book has since been incorporated into my Early Retirement Masterclass reading list for incoming students.

I hope this E-Commerce talk will be the last talk I will attend in my journey to learn how to conduct previews. It is physically exhausting to listen to stories of how people succeed selling things without giving you any details on how to source and how much real money to expect when you start. I was lucky in the last two sessions on real estate because the presenters were fairly good looking.

From now on, my own previews will develop it's own character and even at the expense of some profits, I will be injecting more class and substance to my previews so that, even if you do not end up being a paying customer, it would be useful time spent and you can always read this blog for free.