The goWholesale Blog

Liquidation on Fox! (and in other news…)

January 14th, 2008

Last week, Fox 11 News in Los Angeles interviewed our CEO, Bill Angrick, from Fullerton for a great feature on holiday returns. The segment has since been picked up by other Fox stations and aired throughout the U.S. including in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Cleveland, San Diego, Philadelphia, Tampa, Phoenix and some of you may have caught it on our local Fox station in D.C. You can view the segment online here:

http://www.fox6.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoId=403404@video.fox6.com&navCatId=5 (be patient as there is a long ad you have to watch before our segment).

In addition, the Orange County Register featured LSI in its Saturday edition Money Section, generating great local exposure for Liquidation.com and the STR facility in Fullerton. The online version of the article can be seen here: http://www.ocregister.com/news/services-liquidity-merchandise-1957504-warehouse-buyers

Posted in Announcements, In the News | No Comments »

SBA program for women biz owners drags on, incites protest

January 11th, 2008

What began as an effort to benefit businesses owned by women has turned into yet another headache for lawmakers. The Small Business Administration invested in extensive research to find out which types of women-owned businesses were being underrepresented when it comes to landing government contracts. They narrowed it down to four:

Nationally security and international affairs;
Coating, engraving, heat treating and allied activities;
Household and institutional furniture and kitchen cabinet manufacturing;
Motor vehicle dealers.

Essentially, the proposal would allow contractors to give preference to women-owned businesses in those four categories with the idea being that they would be giving preference to these most underrepresented groups thus increasing the number of contracts granted to women-owned businesses. But this is also where the controversy comes in.

Women who own businesses that do not fall into those four categories are saying that they already have enough trouble landing government contracts only to be further pigeonholed by this proposal (despite its good intentions). The efforts to level the playing field in fact are thrown even more out of balance by singling out specific groups.

On top of it all, this effort began 8 long years ago and it doesn’t appear to be coming to fruition any time soon.

What are your thoughts?

(Click here to read the full SBA proposal )

Posted in In the News, Starting a Business | 1 Comment »

Pink is the new….Taser?

January 9th, 2008

I had heard about this a few months back on a local morning radio show and it has become relevant again as I saw an article in MSN.com’s Small Business site that savvy female entrepreneurs are now hosting Taser parties (instead of the classic Tupperware variety). The disc jockeys facilitated the conversation and of course took calls from listeners weighing in.

The topic: Pink stun guns.

The big deal: It’s a genius marketing ploy for a weapon company.

The consensus: Make it pink and it will sell–whatever "it" is.

The women who called in were more than enthused about this development in self protection and some had even already purchased or received the pink protective devices from loved ones as gifts. The general feeling was that before, while they wanted to have a Taser, they were turned off by the standard black or silver ones as those colors (on this particular product) exude masculinity, aggressiveness and thus produce a general fear of holding one in one’s hand. There’s a reason weapons are traditionally black–it’s scary! So when the news that these weapons would come in "friendlier" colors, it made these women feel less afraid to handle them.

Taser has not done anything the fashion industry, cell phone manufacturers or countless other companies with countless products hasn’t done when marketing to their female clientèle. They haven’t come up with a brand new marketing tactic. But what they have done is step out of the conventional box and took a risk. They now offer "fashion Tasers" in a multitude of colors including of course, two shades of pink and even a sassy leopard pattern. And they are selling like mad.

So the moral of this story? You don’t have to invent a brand new, never heard of before, marketing scheme to increase your sales. Simply consider the possibilities that are right in front of you…and don’t be afraid to try.

And that there’s just something about pink .

Posted in Articles, Generating More Sales, Marketing Your Business | No Comments »

Top 12 Books for Online Entrepreneurs

January 8th, 2008

New entrepreneurs know that the key to success is to educate themselves. Certainly other factors play into overall success, but just as you are taught the basics of math, science, history and English in school, you must arm yourself with the proper tools to build a strong foundation for your business and then continue that education in order to make sure your business achieves its full potential.

Cheap Revolution (a free resource site that aids start ups) posted this list of the Top 12 Books for entrepreneurs, which have been selected specifically for Internet start ups. Happy reading!

Posted in E-Commerce and E-Business, Starting a Business | No Comments »

Benefits of Outsourcing for Small Businesses

January 7th, 2008

This is a great article in the New York Times highlighting how outsourcing can be beneficial for small businesses.

"Outsourcing — the practice of using outside firms to handle work normally performed within a company — is a familiar concept to many entrepreneurs. Small companies routinely outsource their payroll processing, accounting, distribution, and many other important functions — often because they have no other choice. Many large companies turn to outsourcing to cut costs. In response, entire industries have evolved to serve companies’ outsourcing needs.

But not many businesses thoroughly understand the benefits of outsourcing. It’s true that outsourcing can save money, but that’s not the only (or even the most important) reason to do it…"

Click here to read the rest of the article.

For further reading, check out our article Outsourcing: Domestic Verses International

Posted in Hiring and Human Resources | 1 Comment »

GoWholesale Partners:

January 4th, 2008

As you know we at goWholesale.com have been working diligently to provide you with better reporting, higher cpc, and a better/bigger source of clients. We have also been working on being more forward and open; in this spirit we have created a thread for partner updates here on our blog, please book mark this page for quick reference.

This thread will allow us to keep you better updated on any issues regarding partners. However, if you have any questions or concerns about postings please still contact me first, by e-mail or phone.

As for the reporting issue we had this morning:

While we recorded all of your clicks and all of your revenue for yesterday, our reporting was showing no revenue. This was due to a processing error.
We apologize for this issue, have correct reporting for yesterday’s numbers, and believe we fixed the problem going forward.

Sincerely,

Beatriz Ferreira Teixeira
Account Manager

Posted in Partner Updates | No Comments »

New Ebay Radio Site

January 3rd, 2008

WSRadio (the folks who produce the eBay Radio show) has recently launched a website called 50SellingTips.com , which has several audio tips from top eBay selling experts like Marsha Collier, Lynn Dralle, Mike Enos, and Skip McGrath. I thought it might be a good resource for some of you who either are thinking of selling on eBay, or who already do.

Posted in Announcements, E-Commerce and E-Business, Generating More Sales, Starting a Business | No Comments »

Liquidity Services Inc. in the Washington Post!

January 2nd, 2008

Liquidity Services Inc. is goWholesale’s parent company and last Saturday the Washington Post printed an article on the front page of the business section that features LSI as the top solution for major retailers to unload excess inventory and consumer returns following the holiday season.

Click here to read "New Life for Unwanted Gifts"

Posted in Announcements | No Comments »

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