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Well that certainly takes the whole PC vs Mac totally out of the equation.
Now the final step is to enlighten someone who doesn’t know what they don’t know that there are many ways to improve effeciency other than only the ways they know and to show a business owner where all of the monetary dollar loss is taking place. Are people walking too slowly, walking too far, need tools closer by, just need new tools to do the same things being done only faster.
Example, replace a secretary who types 40 words a minute and with one who types 80 words per minute, BUT, wait how about voice recognition software. Replace both of them with a program that types automatically for you will you speak even faster than 70 words per minute. BUT wait, how about a portable unit around your neck that you can use while you walk around your business and doing even other things, even when in the restroom. (-). Get the point.
In many of my consulting cases it is very hard to explain to a business owner that they are the “bottle neck” not the production line or their employees. But some times it is. But another point for another time.
So even if now the Mac vs. PC is not an issue or “Bottle neck” as it’s called in Operations Management, then comes the need. And the only way I ever succeeded in selling an owner on the need was after I did my 3 month ManPower and Systems Analysis of their operation, was to show them the bottom line. How much I could save them, if they allowed me to make the changes, implement and do the training for them. My numbers were NET Bottom line numbers so if I could save a company $200k a year that meant they had to sela lot more than that to net out. So they could then in turn actually work less hard, with less people with less expenditure and smile all the way to the bank.
I worked for a base salary, plus expenses if I had to travel and stay in a far location and took 15% of every dollar I saved a company. 🙂 🙂 nice checks when I have saved co. millions of dollars.Now the big BUT… BUT the business owner has to have an intrerest in saving that money and also not really worry about what it is going to take AND BE INTERESTED in doing it. If there is no interest or they can’t or won’t implement what my report says or keep me on to do the implementation then it is a lost cause.
Until Ebay can provide me with the type of tools I would like to have, and they will probably never be able to do so in my remaining lifetime, I am opting for 3rd party app if nothing else, to make my life easier.
One easy example try to increase or decrease every item in a large store of 6,500 items by 6.75% and be able to do it clicking highlight all, type the decrease arrow, type 6.5% hit enter and walk away. Ebay will only provide several hundred items to do this, page by page by page. About 35 pages in all. So if doing it all in 10 seconds is of no interest then Ebay does provide a way, just not an efficient way.
I want to send an email to all of my customers that have ever bought from me announcing the opening of our new shopify store and wish to offer a 15% discount for their first purchase. Well, I have all emails of every buyer for the last 5 years in my WL database and the mail merge blast will do that in seconds. Ebay will never do or allow this, to take buyers away from the Ebay platform, heck no. Me I am going to pull every buyer I can away from the Ebay buyer list and drive them to my store.
Oh, want to send a snail mail, glossy-slick postcard to all my buyers, well my database has all their real home address, zips and even phone numbers. Thousands of them. BUT-BUT… Don’t ever see a need or a want to do this, and do it automatically.. well there is no need for a 3rd party APP.
OH, BUT-BUT what about sending everylisting you create on Ebay to Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, etc., etc. the moment you hit the submit button to send your listing to Ebay. Well SB and WL does that. I wake up every morning to many replies back from those who are starting to follow us and like the item we just posted. well some then even say they went to our store and loved what they saw. Buy!!! Who knows, but within months those potentials will be being pushed to our Shopify store.
Dont have a separate store, don’t see the need to ever have one, or to break away from Ebay, then an owner doesn’t need this either or a 3rd party app.So as Jay is also stating only in other words… Form Follows Function [an old Bauhaus design saying]. If there is no desire or need envision then the item does not need to be designed, used, bought or sold. Just stay where one is at, keep getting it done and in most access successfully according to the anaylsis at hand and keep making the money based on the secure methodology
Also the learning curve is an investment of time, and with big projects such as large scale renovations foucs and interest certainly can move to bigger and more important projects.
To Quote .. here it comes Troy [a repeat] .. “The only way to win is not play.. How about a nice game of Chess Dr. Faulkin?” I love this saying when business owners could just not see why they needed the improvements and there was no way to convince them other than look at the money you will make. But in these cases the owners just didn’t know or understand. Then it was a waste of my time and theirs.
Again.. grab that $.50 after reading and go get that 1/3 cup of coffee!
Yeah.. Forgot about TruGether. I am getting ready to do a whole bunch of manuevers within WonderLister for a Beta Test of the Eaby to Shopify to Etsy cross platform listing all in one fell swoop. Until some glitches are worked out as we go with the WL team I will most likely have to do some manual edit, delete stuff.
I am thinking it may be best to disengage the Bonaza, Trugether listings and empty those out. Once I start within WL to watch and manage 3 platforms I don’t think I need a sale or two here and there by keeping those platforms to create a distraction or glitch-issue within WL until everything on those 3 big platforms are rolling along smoothly. Even when they are, I will probably only stick with those 3.
MC @ MDCGFA
Easy fix.. so buy a cheap PC. Why let the fact you have a Mac relegate you to something like InkFrog when the SixBit or WonderLister Platorm is just so far advanced, and I will spare you the details.
A suggestion is stop thinking of the 3rd party software as just another listing APP. It is a IMS .. complete Inventory Management System. It is a business platform tool.
And I will ask again, can any Mac user tell me what the Motorola chip sets and OX OS do that that a well built PC rig with WIN 10 OS and Intel chips can’t do.
In the printing business we used all Mac G4 back then. Had about a dozen stations in our art dept to handle customer files on Zip drives to color separate films and use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and the such. I had to write a check one time for over $80,000 dollars to upgrade all those “mothers” and all associated software.People used to say that Mac was less infected and attacked but these days no one is exempt. And PC run somewhere in the neighborhood of 80% ++ of businesses in the world.
Now decades later, many PC run Adobe, only pros can tell the difference, Ripping files for film sepraration is done by specialized software. So why pay so, so much more for a computer rig that has the Apple logo on it when nobody can provide bench marked test data that proves the Mac can process faster and is worth the extra investment and even if they can, is the difference so great it qualifies as a candidate to overpay so much for that difference. Still after all these decades, just curious.
But again, just like always, just an opinion from an old guy, which combined with $.50 may get you about a third of a cup of coffee.
MDC @ MDCGFA
How many people have discontinued the use of Bonanza? Ms. Ryanne, I didn’t I read you were going to empty out and delte your Bonanza store? Thought I saw that a month or so ago.
My Bonanza store just won’t stay in synch with Ebay even if I refresh it and have only had a few sales in years.
Would love to see that. Both nostrils, huh! But really, can’t you just hear Jay, in that calm, tranquil voice, soothingly saying.. “Ok, so, let’s talk about this!”. I heard it in my ears… Didn’t you 🙂
No matter where you go, there you are!
MC @ MDCG
Jay.. Would love to hear you talk with a Ghost…
“So, tell me, What are your numbers, where do you store all of your inventory, what is your best sourcing secret, how do you clean silver-plate, how do you ship a hat? AND BY THE WAY.. Tell me, How do you know you really exist??” LOL HaHa 🙂
Mike at MDCG
Yep, the character was Margo Channing, played by Bette Davis, in the movie All About Eve (1950).
I am going to have to go a long mile to trip you up, so stay prepared.
Mike at MDCGEvery time I see a new Ebay seller Update I think .. “Fasten your seat belts boys, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!” 🙂 [Troy who said and what movie LOL ?? and no not a John Wayne movie}
Mike at MDCG in Atl
Absolutely we get that sku.. but we get it because we make sure we get it and don’t rely just on Ebay. The last data field in our Item Specifics is z-mdc galleries sku: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx and WL also populates automatically the Ebay SKU field from it’s SKU field and it is always there in the IS unless I overlook to copy and paste it in that field.
Also by doing this then even if I don’t or can’t see the Ebay SKU field I can see it by clicking on “See MOre” on the listing and there it is in the bottom and worst case, I just click on the link back to the listing in our store I see it there.
Yes it is a public field and shows in the IS area and can be seen but with that is why we use so many numbers as well as those fake camouflage numbers mixed in, it is very, very difficult for a buyer to figure out what all those numbers mean.
mike at MDCG
Here’s how we create ours. I posted this before some time back. Will re-do for those maybe new or thinking about it.
04942051750340718g1542a Everything we need to know is “embedded” into this numbering system.
Here it is broken down by section 04942 is a consecutive numbering process. 5 digits allow for us to go to 99,999 items before we will have to alter our method.
the 05 is a fake filler number always two digits to help cloud others from figuring our system out.
then the next 4 digits is the price we paid for the item. In this case $17.50, but can be any amount up to $99.99. On smaller amounts we always use zeroes so the SKU always stays the same length. If it was $.50 cost those 4 digits would be 0050.
The next two digits are also fake / camoflage numbers to agagin help cloud and disguise what we are doing
The next 4 digits is the buy date, month and year. In the above example 07 18 = July 2018
Next single letters is the big location G=Garage, A for=Attic, B=Basement, L=Library, D=office drawer
The next 4 digits is the exact bin number in the garage where it is located
and finally the a is the bin also. We store 1 lg bin and 2 small bins in one space, so a is the large bin, b would be 1 of the smaller bins and c would be the 3rd bin. We should have just gone with all numbered bins, but the shelves we have has a small amount of space above the big a bin so we used the same bin number to fill in that space. We could re-do it but we need to list right now, not move bins around.So the above example simply tells us we have item number 04942 – we paid $17.50 for it – we bought it in July 2018 – it is in the garage – space 1542 and if more than one bin in that space, it is in the larger A bin.
This variety of numbers works for a unique customization on each item to make it unique for every item to be identified by WL, SB, IF, AT or any other 3rd party app. They are all consistantly the same length [except for some old ones], it is useful to sorting and filtering in WL by using the sort filter and contains any of those numbers, begins with, ends with, contains, etc. Helps identify dupicates ASAP and also WL will and so does SB will identify duplicates almost instantly.
And lastly if we are away from the office and get an offer we look at the listing scroll down and there is all the data we need to make a decision to accept or reject and offer. Buy date [how long we have had it], what we paid for it. Then if it sells our helper[s} can look at the listing also or we can text them, “pull item #04942” from the garage bin #1542a it is sold and start packing for us.
Presently we do all of this ourselves, but by setting up the system properly in the beginning, we have set the foundation for growth and having others be more effecient at helping us grow the business.
Sounds complicated but is really simple once you get used to it and every, all, any Inventory Management 3rd party app is going to want and need individual, custom SKU numbers. Just plain old, operations management 101. So why not, while we are small, just start now, early on. And it does allow for expansion once we get to the 100,000 mark on items [front number] and over 10,000 storage bins ending number. Ha.. I only wish.
But just my opinion. That and $.50 will only get you half a cup of coffee! 🙂
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art in Atlanta
No you are better than you give yourself credit for. That is “just” about what he said. The “feelin lucky” did refer to how many bullits were left.
My brother in law has 2 Colt .44 Magnums, chromed silver and white grips [don’t know the material]. But just like in the movie, when we have gone to our local range a few times, indoors those puppies are extremely loud, louder, loudest of any hand gun I have ever heard. He has never let me shoot either of them.
I believe they could take your head off or not much remaining.The auction house we go to sells a lot of guns, rifles, shot guns, and hand guns. Never bought any and way too much issues to try to ever sell, but some do.
Mike at MDCG
You hit the nail on the head when you said, “where is the closest Greyhound station”. My father in law used to work for Greyhound in shipping and baggage. He said many people used to ship greyhound using the bagge shiiping process to ship heavy, bulk items. as long as it will fit under and in the bagge area of a bus it will go and they mostly hand move things about.
He said people even wound pack old suitcases with several smaller boxes or wrap items in towels, pillow cases, etc. and stuff them all into a cheap, throw away suitcase they used for one way shipping.
I guess you could still do the same. I just don’t know where the closest terminal is to us. In Atlanta, not too interested in driving to downtown and back.
But I need to maybe remember to Google this and call and see what thier rate charts / pricing is currently. May be an option.
Mike at MDC Galleries
We will see. Going to have to plow back almost everything we will make for a few months, but at the end, maybe around March or so, we hope to be close to doubling our size up to 2,00 there abouts.
Mike at MDCG
OK.. since you are on a I remember kick.. here is another one for you, but NOT a John Wayne.
” You feeling lucky? So, do ‘ya punk!”.. the clincher, that phrase was followed by ..”Go ahead, make my day!”
Ah this is too easy for a pro like you T-Satt
Mike
BTW… WonderLister now has incorporated Multiple User Limited Access. I haven’t done it yet, but will set-up the first Admin. account for me with full access priviledges and 3 helper accounts with limited access priviledges to only certain areas-section of WonderLister.
Will let ya’ll know how that goes later on today.
BTW.. We are going to maybe start with our second helper later this week. She will help a few hours per day Mon.-Thurs. and our first helper of almost a year now still helps a few hours, Fri.-Sun. We are hoping to get all of the new inventory we purchase a week ago listed 250++ items in the near future. Then will come the art prints from our portfolios, then the huge Stamp collection.
We really need to get all of this done as soon as possible.
Mike at MDC Galleries
