| The Dot Com Doom | | | | the competition. |
| | | | |
| | | | One of the most difficult for the eCompanies |
| | | | was customerservice. Unfortunately many Dot |
| So I figure by now you have read yet another | | | | Com companies failed atthis basic and oldest |
| Dot Com thatwent belly up. It's a sad fact | | | | service. The fact is that many of |
| that the once new economy thatwas promising | | | | thee-tailors weren't ready for the influx of |
| untold riches to vast numbers of people | | | | traffic or the ordersthey received. So many |
| isquickly vanishing. But you shouldn't be | | | | customers received their productslate and |
| alarmed I'm still afirm believer in the | | | | many received the wrong product. So what |
| Internet and what it can do provided thereis | | | | happensthe customer is peeved and then is |
| a well thought out plan behind it. | | | | faced with retuning theproduct. So what does |
| | | | he do? He calls the phone numberlisted on the |
| The reason why the Dot Com bubble burst in | | | | website and calls only to talk to a machine |
| March of 2000was that large investors began | | | | andnot a REAL person or his e-mail went |
| realizing that billion of dollarswere being | | | | unanswered for a week. |
| thrown at Internet start-ups with no sound | | | | |
| businessplan yet were worth $1 billion on | | | | With all of this you may be thinking, "Why |
| paper. These companies werenot worth that | | | | should I get intothe Internet business if all |
| much money. Take for example the | | | | the others failed. I mean is thereany hope |
| Internettravel agency that only grossed | | | | left in making real money?" |
| $750,000 in sales yet on paperit attained a | | | | |
| market cap of $1 billion! All they were was a | | | | Definitely! Over the past 3 years online |
| travelagency and to be worth that much on | | | | shopping hasincreased dramatically. Even |
| paper is totally ridiculous. | | | | though many investors areavoiding the Dot |
| | | | Coms like the plague (until they turn |
| So many investors like Charles Schwab and | | | | ahandsome profit) many people like myself |
| Morgan Stanley whowere throwing million of | | | | continue to shopon the net spending billions. |
| investment dollars at bad ideas said forgetit | | | | Why? Well, simply there areplenty of sites |
| time to bail out. | | | | that offer a genuine service and because |
| | | | ofthe convenience factor. I'll be honest I |
| These Internet start-up companies had thrown | | | | stopped buying fromlarge software stores and |
| billions of dollarsof their venture capital | | | | now only purchase from the largeonline |
| cash on unproven and often dumbbusiness | | | | software sellers because many times I find |
| plans. The problem here is that capital is | | | | themcheaper and convenient. |
| the lifebloodof any company and when | | | | |
| investors began to pull out anddemanding | | | | In a final word I still believe that the |
| revenues from unprofitable companies and | | | | Internet canmake you money on the side or if |
| couldshow none they lost out on their second | | | | you choose full-time. |
| round of financing. | | | | |
| | | | However, you must be focused on what you want |
| Coupled with the cost of overhead they | | | | to do. |
| realized they wherein trouble. | | | | |
| | | | 1) Avoid trying to sell to everyone with |
| It also didn't help the fact that so many of | | | | Internet access, itsimply won't work you must |
| these Internetstart-ups were attempting to | | | | sell to a targetedniche market. |
| sell all they had to everyoneunder the sun. | | | | |
| This was one of the biggest errors they | | | | 2) Education, Education and Education. |
| committedbecause who is going to buy cloths | | | | Remember the three |
| from an Internet companywere you can go | | | | |
| yourself and to the mall and shop aroundtry | | | | E's. Try to read everything you can on the |
| on the garment to make sure it fits so on and | | | | Internet andonline marketing. There are vast |
| so forth. | | | | number of resourcesyou can access for free on |
| | | | the net. |
| The fact is that many of these companies were | | | | |
| selling productsany one of use can get | | | | 3) Persistence Don't give up so easily. We |
| elsewhere at the same price or evencheaper. | | | | all learn throughtrial and error it may be a |
| | | | hard lesson but it will be a welllearned |
| What they failed to do was focus on a smaller | | | | lesson. |
| portion ofthe market that will have a | | | | |
| legitimate interest in that product. | | | | A definition of insanity is constantly |
| | | | expecting betterresults repeating the same |
| In other words they would have been better | | | | behavior. |
| off with a targetedniche market and figuring | | | | |
| out what they want, developing aproduct, and | | | | The point here is if something you're doing |
| then selling it to them. | | | | is notworking stop repeating the same |
| | | | behavior. Step backanalyze what you're doing |
| Another killer was that countless Internet | | | | and try something different. |
| companies threwmillions of dollars at bad | | | | |
| advertising. I say, "bad" becauseafter you | | | | ******************************************** |
| saw the commercial you still weren't sure on | | | | *** |
| whatthey were selling. On top of that they | | | | |
| spent countless dollarson ineffective | | | | Copyright (c) 2001 Andres Munoz |
| advertising. | | | | |
| | | | Andres Munoz is the owner of |
| Furthermore many of these companies didn't | | | | |
| even attemptto separate themselves from their | | | | Dedicated in helping the home-based |
| competitors. Theydeveloped no Unique Selling | | | | entrepreneur indeveloping a serious web |
| Point. This is extremelyimportant for those | | | | presence, mail orderbusiness, home-based |
| companies that are competing withothers | | | | business and creating a permanentpresence |
| selling the same products. They must | | | | through effective marketing. |
| emphasizewhat makes their product better than | | | | |