Tim Knox's Articles

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  • It's All Up To YOU
    If you're waiting for Ed McMahon to show up on your doorstep and proclaim, "This is your lucky day!" you are going to have a long, miserable wait. Ed can't make you a success. I can't make you a success. It is all up to YOU.
  • Santa: The Consummate Entrepreneur
    You've probably never considered the fact that Santa is the CEO of a large organization that not only distributes a vast assortment of products throughout the world, but does so in a single night with just a sleigh and eight tiny reindeer. Sam Walton would have killed to have Santa's logistics manual.
  • The Entrepreneur's Checklist
    I was asked the other day what personality traits I thought were important to entrepreneurial success. I immediately gave my preprogrammed reply about passion and dedication and hard work. After taking some time later to ponder the question a little deeper (I normally operate in shallow waters), I came up with a more detailed checklist for entrepreneurial success.
  • Which Affiliate Programs Do I Personally Recommend?
    I personally receive over a dozen checks and commission payments every month from various affiliate programs that I promote. Last month, those checks totaled more than $10,000 and some months they have been as high as $25,000. Given my success as an affiliate marketer, I'm often asked what affiliate programs I personally recommend. The answer is easy because it's actually a pretty short list.
  • Please Don't Buy Anything From Me
    This week I had one customer threaten to hunt be down and shoot me like a dog. Another said that if she could get her hands around my neck she'd strangle the life out of me. And still another sincerely hoped that I "burn in Hell for all eternity." What did I do to deserve these threats
  • What's Your Company's Email Policy?
    Does your company have an email policy? Did you even know there was such a thing? Well, there is, and if your company doesn't have one you are not only risking the professional image of your firm, but also risking potential liability issues that may arise from the misuse of your company email system.
  • What Do Your Business Emails Reveal About You?
    Why should you worry about how your emails are reviewed by their recipients? Because in business, you are constantly being judged by your customers, your employees, your investors, your partners, and your peers.
  • The 8 Things You Must Know To Build A Great Website
    Last week we talked about how a bad website can do your business more harm than good. That column brought several emails asking what is the key to building an effective business website. I replied with the same answer I always give: building an effective business website is a simple matter of definition
  • The Bad Guys Are Phishing For Your Personal Information
    The latest attempt by phishers (identity thieves) to steal the personal information of eBay members hit my inbox earlier this week and I have to say, this one is pretty convincing. Even this old dog did a double-take before realizing that the identity thieves were phishing for my personal information again.
  • Why A Good Credit Score Is Important To Your Business
    Whether you're in business or an individual, you should have an idea of what your credit score is, even if you're not currently applying for credit. Knowing your credit score and occasionally checking your credit reports also helps you protect yourself from identity theft and credit fraud.
  • Dropship Your Way To eBay Success
    Dropshipping has been around since Sears first started selling goods from its mail order catalogs over a hundred years ago. However, the idea of dropshipping still confuses many people who don't understand exactly how the process works.
  • How To Make Big Money On eBay Selling Other People's Stuff
    Since eBay launched the Trading Assistant program last year, over 50,000 eBay sellers have registered as Trading Assistants to help other people sell their goods on eBay. As a result, eBay consignment businesses have sprung up all over the United States and are now starting to appear in Germany and the UK. This means opportunity for you...
  • Do I Really Need A Business License and Tax ID?
    I've gotten quite a few emails recently from ebusiness owners who seem to think that just because their business is conducted online or from the comfort of home that the rules and regulations that govern brick and mortar businesses do not apply to them. The ebusiness questions I get most often do not involve building websites or conducting ecommerce
  • How To Boost Your Bottom Line With Just Two Little Words
    I hate to sound like one of those cheesy get-rich-quick commercials, but this week I am going to let you in on a little secret that is so powerful that it will immediately change the way you do business. In fact, this little secret is so powerful that you will be amazed at its immediate effect on you, your employees, and your bottom line. This little secret is guaranteed to improve your relationship with current customers and if used wisely,
  • How To Profit Using eBay's Saved Search Feature
    Did you know that eBay will help you locate products you can buy cheap, then flip for a quick profit? No? Then listen up, because I am about to let you in on a little known feature of eBay that can literally stuff wads of cash in your wallet in less than 24 hours.
  • Are You Mentor Material?
    Typically, there are three things every good mentor should have: time, patience, and a genuine desire to help another person succeed without expecting anything in return. If you have an abundance of those things, then being a mentor can be a highly rewarding experience. If not, please see the rubber plant reference
  • An Entrepreneur and a Life To Be Remembered
    Most of you who read this column probably have no idea who Corey Rudl was or what he accomplished during his short life, and that’s OK. You also have no idea of the imprint he made on me and millions of others who make our living (at least in part) as online marketers. Again, that’s OK. For all his accomplishments, those who knew him well have said that Corey was more concerned about building his businesses than being a public figure. By those accounts,
  • The Latest Email Scam Is Nothing New
    The eBay scam is just the latest in a long line of sophisticated attempts to steal personal information through online means. Customers of PayPal, Amazon, Dell Computer, eTrade, Bank One, and many other online merchants have been the target of such scams in recent years
  • Is Brick and Mortar A Passing Fad?
    During the dot-com boom the mantra was “Brick and mortar is dead!” Then when most of the dot-com’s crashed like an elephant sitting on a wicker chair, the mantra suddenly changed back to “The Internet is dead! Long live brick and mortar!”
  • For Entrepreneurs A SIMPLE Plan May Be Best
    Let me give you a quick overview of a few of the retirement plans available to small businesses so you at least have an idea of what’s out there before you start your search for a good financial advisor.
  • To Go or No Go, That Is The Question
    Many entrepreneurs would rather have their front teeth pulled without anesthetic than go to the time and trouble of creating a feasibility plan; often because they are afraid of what it will reveal
  • How Good Is Your Big Idea
    Every business idea, no matter how good it sounds while bouncing around inside your head, should be put to the test before you invest time and money into its execution. Success lies not in what you think of your idea, but what the buying public will think. Many entrepreneurs find out too late that the public’s opinion of their idea differs greatly from their own.
  • Veteran Entrepreneurs Are Growing In Ranks
    What my eldest offspring doesn’t understand is I have a great life. In fact, I am living the life I have always dreamed of living. My life just happens to revolve around Planet Business. I am an entrepreneurial addict, a business junkie. Business is my chocolate, my Krispy Kreme donut, my nicotine, my caffeine, my crack. Maybe I’ll start a 12 step program for entrepreneurs who want to kick the habit and charge a cover to get in. Hi, my name is Tim, and I’m an entrepreneur.
  • Opportunity Does Not Knock
    I can tell you that as a breed, entrepreneurs are an impatient lot and many jump on the first business bandwagon that comes along just for the sake of being in business. That’s a big mistake that usually comes back to bite them in their entrepreneurial behinds.
  • Teaching The Big Boys To Think Small
    Last week I told you about a recent report from The Conference Board that has a lot of big company CEOs concerned about competition from smaller, more innovative and entrepreneurially-minded companies. To refresh your memory, The Conference Board's CEO Challenge 2004 reported that 87% of the 540 global businesses surveyed cited innovation and enabling entrepreneurship as priorities for their companies, and 31% considered these issues of "greatest concern.”
  • Teaching Large Companies To Think Like The Little Guys
    The fact that innovation and entrepreneurship run rampant in smaller companies, but is often suppressed in larger companies is nothing new. Management guru Peter Drucker first addressed the issue in his 1985 book, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Drucker wrote that one of the most often-asked questions in many a 1985 boardroom was, “How can we overcome the resistance to innovation that plagues most organizations?”
  • Don't Be Afraid To Give Problem Customers The Boot
    We have all had customers who expected far more than was their due: customers who were unreasonable, overly-demanding, condescending, hard to please and sometimes, even dishonest in their dealings with you. When a customer's reasonable expectations become unreasonable demands you must decide whether or not that customer is doing more harm to your business than good.
  • Cut Start-Up Costs By Using a Dropshipper
    Dropshippers, as they're called
    --are an excellent way to start your e-business and, if done properly, don't have to be a costly endeavor. There are literally hundreds of companies out there that will dropship products for you, everything from gifts and housewares to power tools and furniture.
  • Is Your Website Credit Card Friendly?
    If you think hooking up a brick-and-mortar location with a credit card system stymies most bankers, try asking them how to do it on your website.
  • Business Is No Guarantee of Riches
    We have all had customers who expected far more than was their due: customers who were unreasonable, overly-demanding, condescending, hard to please and sometimes, even dishonest in their dealings with you. When a customer's reasonable expectations become unreasonable demands you must decide whether or not that customer is doing more harm to your business than good.
  • Do You Pay Taxes On eBay Income?
    Last week's column on whether you were required to report income earned from eBay sales to the IRS sparked a number of additional questions and comments from eBay sellers who were hoping that I could somehow validate that their eBay activities were mere hobbies instead of actual businesses and therefore not susceptible to IRS taxation
  • Credit Cards, Merchant Accounts, and Your Bottomline
    The decision to accept credit cards is a wise one for any retailer. I agree with financial guru Dave Ramsey's teachings regarding the use and abuse of credit cards. Many people dig deep holes with credit cards that are hard to climb out of. But, from a practical business point of view, any retail business that does not accept credit cards is leaving money on the table.
  • What's In A Name? When It Comes To Your Business, Plenty!
    In fact, deciding on a business name is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. The right business name can help you rise above the crowd while the wrong business name can leave you trampled in the rush.
  • With a Lease The Devil Is In The Details
    This week we'll discuss the most important aspect of the process: signing a commercial lease (insert dramatic music here). One of the biggest mistakes many entrepreneurs make when leasing commercial space is not reading the lease. Forget reading the fine print. When it comes to a lease its ALL fine print
  • The Internet Tax Man Cometh
    If your small business is like most, the majority of your large purchases are made locally from companies that already collect sales tax. Furniture and computer equipment are typically the largest ticket items a small business buys, so unless you bought your desks and computers off of Ebay (which is highly possible these days) you should be OK.
  • The Business of Identity Theft
    The allure of PayPal is that it does not require the seller to have a bank merchant account through which to process credit cards. Anyone with a verifiable email address and bank account can use PayPal and the service can be implemented almost immediately after registering.
  • Online Payments Make It Easy For Your Customers To Buy
    I have helped many clients set up online credit card processing systems and more than once I've had to sit down with the bank issuing the merchant account and educate them on how online payment systems work. Don't believe me? This is a direct quote (here's the Bible, here's my hand) from the manager who was in charge of processing Internet merchant account applications at a local bank, "When someone pays online how do they swipe the credit card in their computer
  • Maintaining Your Business Website
    If you want to be a web designer, be a web designer. However, if the key focus of your business is building widgets, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that your time would be better spent building widgets, not Web sites
  • If You Build It, Will They Come?
    Assuming that a website will automatically attract customers is the single biggest mistake that many business owners make. It is this mistake that eventually leads them to dismiss their website as a failure and abandon their online sales efforts.
  • Franchising Pros and Cons
    Some folks offered helpful insights and suggestions on how to pick a franchise and a few things to watch out for, while other emails came from current franchise owners asking me to help them sell their operations to Anthony R.
  • Taxing eBay Part Deux
    Several folks argued that just because their little eBay hobby generated a little cash, that didn’t make it a full blown business. It seems they consider the income from their little hobby to be financial manna from Heaven and thereby not taxable by earthly tax collectors. I’ve always been amused by folks who try to impress me with talk about their “little side business” but when the subject turns to taxes they suddenly refer to it as “my little hobby.”
  • Taxing Your eBay Profits
    As a small business person-slash-advice columnist I dread the first quarter of the new year. Not because in my mind my own business fortunes start at zero again every January or because I have already dismissed every New Year’s resolution I made when the clock rang out the New Year. No, the reason I dread the first quarter of the new year is that my email box floods with questions about business taxes and the IRS, my two least favorite subjects on earth.
  • Do You Have What It Taks To Be An Entrepreneur
    There are a variety of skills you'll need to succeed as an entrepreneur and chances are do not possess them all. One of the great things about being an entrepreneur is that if you lack certain skills you can always hire people with those skills to help round out your company skill set.
  • The Secrets Of Starting A Successful Ebay Business
    If Fred Sanford were alive today, Alex, I'm sure he'd be earning his ripple money by selling quality junk on eBay. While it's also true that one man's junk is another man's treasure (I have a garage full of treasure to prove this point), your chances of building a profitable business selling "junk" on eBay (or anywhere else, for that matter) are slim to none.
  • How To Handle Customer Billing Snafus
    Seriously, whether the client owes you the money or not is a moot point. Yes, you made an accounting mistake, but if the client agreed to pay you a certain amount each month in exchange for certain services rendered, and you have been under-billing that client for delivering those certain services, the client owes you the money, period.
  • Entrepreneurs Just Get Better With Age
    According to recent studies 22 percent of men and 14 percent of women over 65 are self-employed. That's compared to just 7 percent for other age groups. According to a Vanderbilt University study the number of entrepreneurs age 45 to 64 will grow by 15 million by 2006.
  • When It Comes To An Office Lease, It's ALL Fine Print
    One of the biggest mistakes many entrepreneurs make when leasing commercial space is not reading the lease. Forget reading the fine print. When it comes to a lease its ALL fine print. Don't believe me? Let me tell you the true story of my friend, Homer, whose name I have changed to protect the ignorant.
  • What's The Customer Service Buzz About Your Business?
    If you're a regular reader of this column you know that my number one pet peeve is bad customer service. Nothing chaps my backside more than paying hard-earned money for a product or service only to have the provider of said product or service become apathetic, obnoxious or just downright rude after the transactional smoke has cleared.
  • There Are No Dumb Business Questions, Not!
    I've gotten a few head-scratchers in response to this column. You know who you are, but don't worry, your secret is safe with me. I have a confession to make. Writing an advice column, whether it be advice for love or money or business, is often hard to do with a straight face. Occasionally a question comes over the digital transom that just makes me go, "Huh?"
  • The Thick Line Between Buddy and Boss
    I have made just about every business blunder you can imagine. I am like the Evel Knievel of the small business world, if Evel Knievel wrote a weekly column on motorcycle safety. One of the more unpleasant things I've had to do is fire a good friend who was not doing the job I hired him to do. He needed a job, I needed an employee, so I thought I would give him a shot

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