Wholesale Animals.. They know don't they? - Ancient Wisdom

Greetings from lock-down in Bali day 14

Happy Easter Weekend.. but it's not is it? It's more of the same. Easter normally a time of Chocolate, family gatherings and trips to Church (for the faithful) is now just a time for quiet reflection. Easter is a time of renewal, and maybe after this terrible virus has done it's worst the world will have a kind of renewal with different values installed. Seems to me that humans as the dominant most powerful creature on earth, abused the position.. killing whales, and animals big and small.. now a thing so small we can't even see it, has this terrible power over us. Ironic no?

Hope you are safe and well, and not going stir crazy. Obviously I'm still here stuck in Bali, learning to adapt, finding ways to keep fit, feed myself, keep occupied. Actually keeping occupied is not a big problem, the day fills up with tasks, and I'm spending more time talking to family and friends than I ever did. Must be the same (but different) for you also. Last week I was telling you how I was almost homeless.. you can read about it here.

I was also asking you what you going to do now? With my suggestion that you invest in your future by building websites and establishing new revenue streams.

Lots of you responded to this with suggestions of ways to build websites.. I'll add the ideas below.

The big news in the UK is that we finally managed to get our own AW Aromatherapy Sanitiser on sale. But not an easy task as everyone and their uncle are looking for the ingredients needed and prices are rocketing. See BBC news on this.

So the past few weeks Alan our able production manager in the UK has been fighting to find the ingredients, fortunately we had stock of bottles and spray tops, essential oils we have ample supplies from long relationships with suppliers who will support us. Alcohol more tricky but he fought the good fight to secure some stock. Tomas was in the factory booting up equipment to get production flowing. There is compliance issues, form filling, red tape galore.. and Alan is keen a perfectionist and ensures that we have a great product.

Tomas (marketing wizard) wanted it to look good. Last night we quietly launched. I think we broke the internet.. :/

Well to say demand is high is an understatement. So today I have spent working with Coco in China to secure more bottles and caps, she is fighting to get supplies for us. Pleasantly surprised that even though demand is high the prices are the same as before for the packaging. For sure we will sell out soon.. but we are all working to bring more asap.

It's peaceful and quiet, its so quiet.. the air feels cleaner. The animals, the birds something about them.. they know.

In the hotel where I was week before last sitting outside this bird would come and sit near by. We kind of became friends, he was always there - sometimes singing.

But maybe I'm going mad.. but in the villa garden I have now, the same bird is coming (well OK could be a different one) but I can hear him singing as I type. He knows.. I'm sure.

Drop-shipping is buzzing - and lots of enthusiastic users are finding ways to sell on-line.

Here's my recommendations for creating a webshop again..

1. Shopify - probably the most popular these days and we are working on a plugin for this first to streamline AW dropshipping and Shopify. At $29/ month you pretty much get what you pay for but what many people don't realise with Shopify lite, (just $9/month) you can add order buttons to any site even Facebook, and sell stuff everywhere.
2. Squarespace - I have had a little experience with this, and was delighted how easy it is to make a cool website quickly. An eCommerce site starts at £20 / month.
3. Bluepark - this I like because you can add your own payment method in the cart.. meaning you're giving a cut of your sales to the platform. Gets good reviews. From £25 / month
4. Wix - this is cool but budget.. you can pretty much make it do what you want. I have played with it in it's early days and it was good then. From about £10 / month (or even free - but don't do that it's not a cool look)

and we can add to that..

5. WordPress .. One of the oldest website solutions, but still manages to be cool. Lots of plugins.. costs from £20 / month. I understand you might get cheap access via a deal with GoDaddy when you register your domain there. WooCommerce is a plugin to access the e-commerce - getting complicated no? But many people like it.

6. Jimdo - this one is made in Germany, they have a Coronavirus offer to help small business right now. Use the code: JIMDOHELP when paying to get a huge discount just $1 per month (usually £15 / month). I had a quick look round, it's pretty nice.

Anyway, I wish you a peaceful Easter. Stay Home. Stay Safe.

David