Wednesday, June 8, 2011

I sold two t-shirts today!

Normally, It's me that builds the websites for other people to make the money in today's economy.  Today at the end of the day I got a surprise!  On a shopping cart site that I set up as a kind of test or a way to possibly make a little side cash a summer ago, I finally sold something off the website.  Now, I haven't really ever or at all optimized the site for any keywords or anything or any way at all.  So it was a real shocker to see that someone had actually found and ordered a couple of t-shirts from me today!  The site I had set up is kind of basic in design but is every bit of functional as any other shopping cart site on the net.  The site, www.HotWearables.com is a coldfusion shopping cart.  One that I've sort of specialized in setting up these days.  I have set up a few of these lately.  They have all the bells and whistles that you'd come to expect in a cart.  The shirts I sold today were from my Funny Slogan t-shirt line and say Nauti-Boy on the front of them.  A lady the city bought them!   How cool is that!  I'm starting to think, Maybe I'm getting it all wrong?!  Maybe I should be selling t-shirts instead of websites?

Thursday, June 2, 2011

What is the role of the Small Business Man in America?

I've been thinking lately about the role of the small business man in America in the summer of 2011.  I keep hearing in the news that the large corporate America is downsizing due to jobs being shipped overseas, companies are moving their businesses offshore to save money by engaging slave labor and by saving taxes.  After they do this, their products show up in stores like Walmart which we all probably frequent on a regular basis.  So it used to be that we made the products and we consumed the products.  The companies made the money, the people earned it, the people spent it, and the money all stayed local.  Now, the companies make the money, the people in other countries make the product, and make much less than her for making it, we consume it paying more than before and yet more money is funneled out of the country.

This makes me think about the role of the average "small business man/woman" in America.  I feel that not only do we need to begin reading labels and insisting on buying only products that are made in the USA but that we need to all institute a policy of trying new things.  Products and services that are offered by men and women that live and breath in the US.  By keeping ourselves buying mainly only the big corporate stores products, we are only helping to stamp out the small business man. 

My own business is aimed at helping people sell their cars online.  It does this by combining Pictures, Video and text.  What I mean here is any number of pictures, and VIDEO.  This allows people to hear the ACTUAL car that is being shown to run, drive and be heard.  This helps buyers find the right car, keeps the seller from hiding anything, and provides simply a better buying process for people.  I call them "vehicle video classifieds"  or "Car Video Ads" or "Video Picture Classifieds for Cars, Trucks, Boats, Bikes & More"  The page shows a basic version of what is possible on my site.  But this is just one man's solution.  It's free for anyone to use both dealers and individuals alike. 

I see my role as being responsible for offering a better solution for buying and selling vehicles in America. 

I'd like to hear from other small business people in America to see what it is that you have created or are selling, or doing better than the big corporate America.