September is and in Full Swing: Fourth Quarter Planning

September is in full swing, and it is already going fast.  Here it is September 8th already.  Although fourth quarter planning should already be well  underway, now is the time to go hard straight through until the end of the year if you are working any kind of online business model.

Side note and point of interest before we get into it:  Mornings are my very favorite time of day.  I love the peacefulness of the sun rise, and the promise of the day.  I love to wake up before the rest of my world (normally around 5:00 AM) to just gather my thoughts for the day, enjoy my first cup of coffee in peace, and review my plan of action for that day.

This picture was one I took a while back of a beautiful sunrise with the clouds and the rays of sun shining through.  Just beautiful, had to capture it.  Are you a morning person?

For me, my summer sales were extremely slow.  I have been working on building my E-commerce listings on both eBay and Amazon for my dropshipping items.  Sales have been picking up, but they are no where near where I want them to be.

My July sales on Amazon were only just shy of $8500, and my August sales although stronger were only $14 796.  Amazon is my stronger selling platform by about 10 times.  Last year for December, I sold over $50 000 in that one month just on Amazon.

My sales on eBay are much less than that, but I can blame only myself here.  I had stopped selling on eBay last spring to concentrate completely on Amazon.  My eBay sales are considerably less, coming in at less than $1500 per month for July and August.

I’m just being honest here.  I hate it when people in the industry give inflated numbers and a bunch of super-hyped nonsense just to attract more innocent people new to online sales to follow to them when it’s all hype and B.S..  The point is my summer sales completely sucked.

I would love to have you as a member of my team, but because you know that working an online business is mostly about working, and because you know that I am being honest and real.  You CAN NOT achieve any kind of result by working a couple hours each week and then sipping margaritas on a beach in Maui the rest of the time.   When I see stuff like that it infuriates me!

During the summer months, I have also been working on my site At Home With Heather.  I really want to build it up so that it can be an excellent go-to resource for you.  I have been getting mentoring from a long time non-guru in the industry Lynn Terry.  She has had a successful online business for the last 18 years.  Lynn is a super affiliate, professional blogger and she runs a private mastermind group that has been a huge help (more on that another day).

So back to fourth quarter planning…

My September goals are:

1. Increase my September Amazon sales by a minimum 60% to $25 000.  I am doing this by trimming the fat – meaning the items that have not been selling or that I can not be competitive on.  Listing new items that will sell especially this time of year.  I follow the DSD Monopoly Training to do this.
2. Increase my September eBay sales by a minimum 60% to $2500.  Same situation here, getting rid of the items that are not selling, and then it’s all about listing more, more, more.  I have a pretty large listing limit (140K) and so have lots of room to list way more.
3. Increase my social media following for At Home With Heather, concentrating mostly on Facebook, Google+ this month.  Currently my FB has 172 likes, and my G+ has 151.  I have purchased a little course that I am hoping will help me to do this.  I don’t just want numbers though, I want to find followers who will engage and be interested in what AHWH is all about.
4. Continue to blog 3-4 times a week to bring you helpful, interesting updates, tips and tricks that I am currently using for 4th quarter.  I am doing this by participating in a blog challenge through my mastermind group.  As well, I will be tweaking the site to make it run more effectively.
5. Continue to work on the books with my mother (to whom I have outsourced the majority of it – thanks mom).  YUCK!  Not something I enjoy at the moment.  This is not a money making task, but a task that needs to be priority regardless.  It is in a bit of a mess at the moment because I have never made it priority, lol.

That is a huge amount to cover this month.  I am really trying to “grind” as they say to see a much better result this month.  Then in October, it’s time to go crazy!  October – December of course are the best selling months of the year, especially for physical products.

If you are looking to make some extra cash for Christmas, I can show you how. If you already have a business and are working to see a huge 4th quarter, kudos to you my friend. I would love to connect and share stories.

Talk soon,

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