Released on: March 8, 2008, 2:44 am

Press Release Author: mohan mittal

Industry: Management

Press Release Summary: It was the middle of the afternoon and I was hungry. Nothing
decent in the kitchen to eat so I had to go out and get some food. There was a new
book shop just opened in the city, one of those massive places with a Starbucks and
a café on the upper floors.

Press Release Body: It was the middle of the afternoon and I was hungry. Nothing
decent in the kitchen to eat so I had to go out and get some food.

There was a new book shop just opened in the city, one of those massive places with
a Starbucks and a café on the upper floors. Since I had not read a book for some
time, I could kill two birds with one stone (I hate that saying) and go there to eat
and read.


I hit the business section. After getting past the pile of Trump books, I found what
I was looking for:

The 80-20 Principle, by Richard Koch.

Reading the back cover, it says that... 80 per cent of the output of an activity
comes from 20 per cent of the inputs.


So how can this help you make more money on eBay?


Well, the applications of the 80-20 principle will depend on the approach towards
eBay that you\'re using. Let\'s say that you are dealing in a \'niche\' market, trading
in antiques of a certain kind. I don\'t know much about antiques, but let\'s say you
are buying and selling ancient Chinese antiques. Now, what you might find here is
that you\'ll have the same people buying these antiques repeatedly. In other words...

80 per cent of your business comes from 20 per cent of your customers.
The implications of this? Firstly, suiting your products to these 20 per cent. If
they\'re buying X, give them more of X.

Plus, make sure you keep these customers very happy indeed, because that one way to
make more money on eBay and where the biggest profits lie. So think more of what
they want, more freebies just for them and constant communication just for them and
so on.


Also, you might also find that 80 per cent of your great products come from 20 per
cent of your supplier base.
Furthermore, you might find that 80 per cent of your hassle comes from 20 per cent
of your products, and within that figure, 80 per cent of the hassle comes from 20
per cent of the hassles! Or, generally, 80 per cent of hassles come from 20 per cent
of your customers. Also, you might find that 80 per cent of your profit in a given
year comes from a selection of items - maybe 20 per cent of your items produce the
profits, the rest only mediocre.

But here\'s the interesting thing.

You see, the intuitive thing to do - if you have products that are losing, and some
that are winning - is to try and \'work\' the losers so they come up to speed. Not so,
according to the 80-20 principle. Because rather than bothering with these losers,
we\'d want to do more with those few that are winning.

Sounds strange, huh?

Because most people would try and work with the losers...they\'d try to bring them up
to speed. Well, the author of this book says that, instead, you should concentrate
your efforts on what\'s working best:

The 20 per cent that\'s producing 80 per cent of the results.

That\'s right. You DON\'T concentrate on improving the 20 per cent... you simply work
harder with the 20 per cent that is producing 80 per cent of the results!
That may sound a bit well, silly - and counter-intuitive. You\'d think that if you
had ten products, and eight were performing badly... well, most people\'s natural
reaction is to try and boost the results of the bottom eight. Uh-uh. Go the other
way. Try and boost the results of your best two.

Or, in the case of suppliers, concentrate more on the best two. Or, if you\'ve got a
mailing list of buyers, concentrate on the top 20 per cent. How? As I\'ve said, by
treating they right... maybe reward them with free gifts and so on.
And what if you\'re selling products wholesale? And what if you\'re selling the same
product over and over?
Then what? Do you concentrate on the losers and try and improve them? Uh-uh.
Probably wrong. Try the winners... and try to boost the results of what\'s already
working.

I\'ll give you a practical, real-world current example. I tried a listing for a
product. It went pretty well. In fact, it went really well, better than I expected.
Now, it just so happens that I was selling the same product over and over again -
the wholesale approach. But what could I do to expand? The logical thing would be to
get more products.


But no. Instead of doing that, I listed the same product AGAIN - right alongside the
identical product!

That\'s right. I simply listed the same product again, at virtually the same time
(i.e. running them simultaneously) but with a different picture. And it sold nearly
as well. It\'s all about getting more out of the winning 80 per cent.

See, instead of diversifying, the implication of the 80/20 principle is actually one
of anti-diversification. Because instead of going into new markets and the like,
perhaps I should concentrate more on the current niche that\'s working very well for
me, and yes - working with the current one product that\'s working so well. So after
the current product is \'hammered\', and I\'ve listed it as many ways as I can
(concentrating on what\'s working), then I can try other products in that SAME market
that\'s already producing great results for me.

Make sense?

What we\'re doing here is the opposite of diversifying our eBay business. It\'s
concentrating purely on what\'s most effective at the current time, and working out
ways to boost the current good results.

What\'s your best performing listing right now? Try listing more of it. Try new
categories, new approaches, different descriptions and pictures.

Who are your best customers now? Sell them more, and make sure they\'re well looked
after.

Where are your profits the biggest right now? Instead of trying to expand out in the
logical way, try a different approach and concentrate on what\'s currently most
effective.

Most beakers don\'t think about these things! Very few do! If you stop to think about
it for a moment, you might be surprised. If you analyze it, you\'ll probably be even
more surprised. You might find just ONE product is carrying your business, and it\'s
that product that deserves a great deal more attention.



Web Site: http://www.greatindustrialguide.com

Contact Details: nanak1041@gmail.com,mohan mittal