Up until this point, I’ve never ever considered recommending Shopify to new shop owners. Even though it’s one of the most popular fully hosted shopping carts around, there were always a few aspects of Shopify that I just could not get over.

For one thing, they charge a transaction fee which is something that I absolutely detest because you have to forfeit a percentage of your sales which directly eats into your profits.

Right now, Shopify’s basic plan charges a 2% transaction fee. And while you can get that fee reduced to 1% for paying more every month, any percentage transaction fee is a pretty big negative in my book.

For example if you look at my online store, I’d be easily paying over 10-20x more to run my shopping cart on Shopify vs the current open source solution I use today. The other thing that I really dislike about …

This post was written by Tom Ewer, a regular contributor for MyWifeQuitHerJob.com!

Are you struggling with the very concept of establishing your own successful online business?

The very thought of running a burgeoning business can be completely unbelievable if you have not yet done it.

I understand this as well as anyone — when I first decided that I wanted to quit my job in May 2011, there was a voice in the back of my head that often told me that the whole idea was a complete pipe dream.

Related: From 0 To Quit: Why You Should Start An Online Store Today And Why Niche Shops Are So Powerful

But realizing those “pipe dreams” is most certainly possible, and in my experience, the key is often in figuring out where your value lies. We all have something to offer, but we’re often looking in the wrong places as we strive to figure out how …

I am fascinated by the concept of productivity.

And I strongly believe that productivity can be the difference between achieving great things, and simply existing.

Photo By Greg Turner

After all — each one of us has exactly the same number of hours in the day with which to reach our goals. It is what we do, and how we execute, that makes all the difference.

With that in mind, today I want to talk about routine, and how it can make a major impact on our potential for success.
Establishing a Habitual Path to Success
If you want to achieve something, it often involves some kind of unique commitment — something you have not done before. It is all too easy to become resistant to such actions, and to have doubts over your prospects of success.

In such scenarios, I find routine to be a powerful ally. If you can make these actions just another part …

Getting started doing anything is hard, especially something new and unknown. I’m the master at dilly dallying around, procrastinating, and trying to think my way into figuring out if I’ll enjoy doing something or not.

Photo By djwudi

It doesn’t work though, because your mind is designed to solve problems, real world problems, and when you present it with an infinite timeline, it tends to spin up new reasons why you shouldn’t; it hates the unknown.

Let’s put our minds to good use. Instead of sitting around wondering, let’s get moving and start solving real world problems.

We don’t need to invest heavily or make a long term commitment up front. All we need is a simple plan to test the waters that will ease us into new things, allowing us an escape route if we ever hit a wall.

There’s only two important questions we need to answer right now…

Is This …

If you look in your wallet, you probably have a credit card. And chances are, you receive some sort of benefit whenever you make a credit card purchase.

Some cards give you cash back. Some cards provide discounts on gas. Some cards give you double airline miles.

Photo By Toni Blay

But have you ever stopped to wonder how these rewards cards can affect a small business? Probably not unless you run one yourself.

The truth is that the costs of these “rewards” are often deceptively passed along to merchants and store owners.

If you run an online store, you are probably aware that shopping for a credit card processor can be extremely confusing.

In fact, my friend Scott Bradley who writes for BrilliantBusinessAdvice.com recently brought to my attention some deceptive practices that credit card processors are applying when advertising their credit card processing rates.
Things To Be Aware Of When Shopping For …

The flip side of not having any ideas to work with is having too many. Yes, it is possible to have an overabundance of ideas, especially when you only need one to get going.

This creates the same paralysis as not having any ideas. The constant question that drives me to the edge of insanity when I’m in this position is “which one do I chose!” Hair pulling, restless sleep, and irritability usually follow.

There’s two factors that go into being crippled by too much choice. The first is, you don’t want to make a time investment in something if in the end, it’s not going to be a success. This uncertainty is a killer.

It happens to everyone though, when faced with a plethora of choices, it’s impossible to know if the choice you’re making is the “right” one. You’ll only know after the fact.

The second …

Often, we see success as being dictated by how good our business plan is, or how determined we are to reach our goals.

Photo By Michael Dales

Those elements are of course extremely important (if not required). Invariably, without a good idea and the required work ethic to leverage it to its maximum potential, very little will be achieved.

However, I have learned that there a number of other factors that contribute to our success.

Such factors may seem inconsequential at first glance, but they really can make all the difference – I say this from personal experience.

Today, I want to explore two changes I have consciously made to my environment that have increased both my desire to succeed, and drive to do whatever is necessary.
Create a Bespoke Working Environment
When I committed myself full time to my writing business in January 2012, I set up a home office in my spare bedroom. I created …

After looking at hundreds of online shops and providing critiques for many shopowners, I see the same mistakes being made over and over again. And what’s frustrating is that most of these mistakes have to do with either being too cheap, greedy or lazy.

Photo By kalavinka

For example, most newbie webmasters simply use the out of the box shopping cart installation without any modification which results in a sub optimal shopping experience for their customers.

To be successful, you have to take the time to make your store unique and attractive. You have to stand out and the default look just isn’t going to cut it.

Other shop owners think that they can cut corners and skimp out on paying for critical products and services in order to save money. Below is a list of the most common newbie mistakes that will absolutely cripple your store’s chances for success.
No Contact …

Most of the readers who visit MyWifeQuitHerJob.com fall into opposite extremes when it comes to their online business goals. Either they want to go all out, create their own products or import their goods from Asia for maximum profit or they want to start an online store as a side business using the most “passive” methods available.

Photo By Daniel Broche

The prospect of making money passively without requiring much work is extremely attractive which is why many readers fall into the latter category.

In other words, they want to be able to make money with as little active effort as possible. They don’t want to have to carry inventory or do product fulfillment which is why I receive many questions having to do with either running a dropshipped online store or becoming an affiliate marketer.

However, there seems to be some confusion about the differences between these two types of online …

The other day, a friend of mine called to let me know that after a year of dragging her feet, she finally decided to take action on launching an online store. And I was ecstatic! One of the reasons I was so excited was that her story was so similar to ours when my wife and I first started out with our online business. Her goal was to start a family, quit her job and stay at home with her child without sacrificing her income. An online business would be perfect!

Photo By Mild Mannered Photographer

As we spoke on the phone, I became completely engulfed by her enthusiasm and her energy. And after about 5 minutes, she made me genuinely excited about her products which she wants to sell to the baby boomer market.
Oh Steve!! The best part is that I’ve made sooo …

In my previous article on My Latest Take On Hosted vs Non-Hosted Ecommerce Solutions, I recommended two hosted shopping cart solutions, Volusion and BigCommerce, that do not charge any transaction fees for using their service. Not being charged a percentage of your sales is nice because you can run your store at more or less a flat monthly rate(not taking into account credit card fees) that does not scale proportionally to your revenues.

A few weeks ago, I signed up for trial accounts with both Volusion and BigCommerce and decided to compare the two services. Before I get into the guts of the review, I’ll just tell you up front that you can’t really go wrong with either service and choosing between the two really depends on which features and factors you value more.

I also wanted to mention that I’m not going to really go into that much …

As long as I’ve been writing tutorials on how to open an online store, I’ve always advocated going with a free open source shopping cart and hosting it yourself as opposed to signing up for an all-in-one hosted ecommerce solution. After all, if you host your shopping cart yourself, you’re in charge of your own destiny. You have full control over the source and no one can suddenly raise prices on you. Plus, there are many cool things that you can do on your own that the big hosted solutions won’t allow you to do.

Photo By Kevin McShane

But after running this blog for a couple of years now and listening to reader feedback, I’ve come to realize that using an open source ecommerce solution and self-hosting may not be the right solution for everyone.

Some people are just completely tech averse and don’t want to deal anything remotely …

Since I commonly get asked what services I use for my online store, I thought it would be useful to create a resource page that details every product, tool and service I recommend. If you are thinking about starting an online store in the near future, you should bookmark this page for your reference and convenience. Enjoy!

Web Hosting

Based on several emails that I’ve been receiving lately, it seems that a few of you are hesitant to start a business because you’re hung up or stuck on selecting a business idea to pursue. And the number one concern seems to be whether there is enough demand or too much competition in your niche to succeed.

Photo By Soller

I received an excellent email in my inbox a few weeks ago that pretty much summarizes where a lot of people are getting stuck so I’ve decided to dedicate a blog entry to the topic.

I just came across your site and it seems like an awesome resource. I have a question for you, that might make a nice blog post. I did a search of your site, but could not find the answer to my question, so here it is:

My wife has an idea for an ecommerce store. It seems …

Many of the questions that I receive in my inbox at MyWifeQuitHerJob.com are related to opening a dropshipping store and I can certainly understand the appeal. When you run an online store that only offers dropshipped products, you don’t have to worry about inventory and you don’t have to worry about product fulfillment. All you have to do is sell the product, take orders and make a decent profit. Alas, if only it were that easy…. As with everything that sounds too good to be true, there are always gotchas.

Photo By Suzanna

In theory, dropshipping sounds like a great idea because it’s inherently scalable without you having to do a lot of work up front. But when you dig down a bit further, it becomes obvious why dropshipping isn’t so great. Most people try to open up a dropshipped shop expecting it to be easy, …

When most people think about entrepreneurship or starting their own business, the first thing that comes to mind is the risk that is associated with being your own boss. Perhaps that is why entrepreneurship is such an exhilarating and sexy term. It takes guts to go out on your own.

Photo By Better Than Bacon

But the funny thing is that most of the successful entrepreneurs I know are very conservative and don’t like taking risks at all. Ironically, my entrepreneur friends are some of most risk averse people I know! I happen to fall into this same camp as well. Sure, I would risk a good amount of money to start my own business but would I ever bet the entire bank or stake my livelihood on a business idea? Hell no!

Managing Risk
One of key aspects of entrepreneurship is knowing how to mitigate risk. …

Whenever I mention to anyone that I work a full time job, help my wife run our online store and maintain MyWifeQuitHerJob.com all while having two kids in the house, one of the first questions I always get is how I find the time to do all of these things.

Photo by Morbuto

Believe it or not, even with all of these items on my plate, I still feel I have time to take on even more. The secret is being more efficient with your time and managing your day a little bit better.

I know. It’s easier said than done. But I’m going to describe in this article how my wife and I organize our time to run our online business and and how we manage to cram a ton of activities into a single day.

The reality is that there’s plenty of free time lying around. You …

“I have no idea how to create and manage my own website and I have absolutely no interest in learning either. I’m just going to hire someone or pay for a service.”

Believe it or not, most people that I encounter who want to create their own online store or business have this attitude. They are reluctant to learn basic web programming because they are afraid of the technical aspects of running a website.

To me, this attitude is contradictory. You want to start an online only business yet you have no desire to learn about the web? That’s

Photo by Photos8.com

like saying that you want to be a real estate agent but have no desire to learn about the rules and regulations involved in buying or selling a house.

Unless you have the budget to hire a full time web developer, you are going to have to …

This is part 7 of a 7 part guide on how to start a small business.

Especially if you’re a first time entrepreneur, starting your own business can be quite overwhelming. The are many rules from both an accounting and a legal perspective that need to be followed or you risk getting penalized by the government.

Sometimes unexpected problems or disputes will arise in which you will have no clue how to proceed. That is why it is essential to have an experienced professional available to consult with when things become complex. At a bare minimum, you should find an accountant or a tax expert to help in preparing your initial business tax return even if you think you know what you are doing.

Small Business Startup Guide

Introduction
Part 1: Deciding On A Corporate Structure
Part 2: Small Business Trademark Issues
Part 3: Small Business Regulations and Permits
Part 4: Small Business Taxes
Part 5: …

This is part 3 of a 7 part series on how to start a small business.

Even though it’s not technically difficult to officially register your business with the US and state government, it can be quite intimidating. That being said, I can tell you that my wife and I were absolutely terrified about the entire process. What if we screw up and get audited? What if we forget to obtain a permit or fill out some crucial paperwork? The good news is that it’s not that complicated to fill out the forms. The bad news is that all of the information can not be easily found in one centralized location.

Small Business Startup Guide

Introduction
Part 1: Deciding On A Corporate Structure
Part 2: Small Business Trademark Issues
Part 3: Small Business Regulations and Permits
Part 4: Small Business Taxes
Part 5: Small Business Hiring
Part 6: Small Business Bookkeeping
Part 7: Small Business …