Product Description

Have you always dreamed of leaving your mundane job and owning your own business? The Maui CEO is a practical guide for any new entrepreneur that demonstrates how to develop a business from idea to launch. Maui CEO provides specific tips on how to dominate and manage an entire competitive segment on eBay.

Author John Tennant, an experienced dot-com business owner and professor, shares his vast knowledge about eBay—a critical channel for product businesses. Mr. Tennant helps you decide which product to buy for resale, and provides practical direction on how to:

• Develop an online business identity and incorporate in Nevada
• Find sellers in China
• Order and import your first container of product
• Outsource Web development, site hosting, and merchant integration
• Locate warehouse space and manage inventory
• Avoid fraud with eBay, escrow, and PayPal

The Maui CEO will help you create a product-oriented business that will quickly be up and running, and can easily be managed from any location. If you are ready to earn the coveted eBay title “category killer,” then don’t wait any longer—get started today!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #296031 in Books
• Published on: 2008-02-18
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 186 pages

About the Author
John Tennant teaches global business, e-Business, and corporate strategy at the University of Phoenix and has run his own dot-com business. His prior experience includes working for Intel, WordPerfect, and two law firms.

Mr. Tennant earned both a J.D. and M.B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Customer Reviews

Deceptive Title. Very Little Useful eBay Info. Waste of $$.
If you want to sell coffins, pianos, or pool tables on the internet, then this *might* be the book for you. The title is deceptive, as very little of the book deals with building an eBay business. The author's basic recommendations (all very superficially presented) are that you: attend trade shows in China to find products to sell, choose products that must be delivered as freight (your barrier to entry in his scenario is the fact that UPS and FedEx don't ship big things, so many sellers don't want to deal with big things -- me either!), incorporate in Nevada, and lease a warehouse in Long Beach, California. It's a 93-page book, supposedly about selling on eBay; yet hardly any of the book deals with eBay. There's a chapter on developing your corporate identity, but no mention of the logistics involved in getting containers delivered to anywhere but Long Beach. There's a chapter on getting your website up (unnecessary if you're selling on eBay), but nothing specific about an eBay storefront. In the chapter entitled "Ebay, PayPal, Escrow, and Your Security," the author writes: "Ebay is the subject of many books--4,136 on Amazon, to be exact. Why else do you think I have eBay in my book title?" Good question.

Advice is either poor or simply not given
If you want to learn how to import, you won't here. There is no meat on this bone! There is no advice on how to really find a supplier and qualify them, and no advice on what type of products to import. From the looks of it he imports pianos. That's fine, but a poor product to start out with!

He talks about importing a full container (20 or 40 foot). You are nuts to do that. You need to start with a LCL (Less than Container Load, something like a pallet or two) which has a significantly lower risk. Getting a warehouse right away? Use your garage or an extra bedroom until you get a good footing.

He talks a lot about the tools on his website. His website is useless! He has links to eBay research tools that do not work. Also, if you sell primarily on eBay you don't need your own website (at least not at the start).

I was amused by a few lines on how you could reduce your costs by flying to China with cash to pay for your purchase ahead of time. This would reduce your invoice amount thus reducing your import duties. Then he says this is illegal and you would likely spend more on the plane ticket than savings on the duties. Huh???? What was the purpose of that?

There is maybe three or four pages with a bit of useful information. Overall, this is a train wreck. The people that give this 5 stars and try his "methods" will likely have a problem.

My advice if you do? Start small and keep your risk down to what you can lose. Find a good customs broker in your locale and get some help from them. They are experts at this despite what this guy says.

Lastly, he should spend a few bucks on an editor!! There are many typos, grammar errors and senseless sentences in this document. It's a disgrace. Is this what U of M puts out(he has an MBA and JD from there)?

Best book I have read in months
This is the best, most practical book on starting your own import business I have ever read. I think the advice on "creating barriers to entry" is brilliantly easy to understand and execute to. It is not a "how to be an eBay seller" general guide, but provides specific advice around picking products that have more limited competition given the logistics of moving that product. For instance, selling large outdoor children's playsets, which can't be shipped by UPS, naturally reduces your competition, so that you aren't among 1000 others selling the same thing on eBay. This is a guide, not encyclopedia, emphasizing quality over quantity, and is well worth the price.