Diary of an eBay store

As a fellow broke entrepreneur, when I write entries for this blog, I’m also researching the information for myself as well as trying to help others. I wouldn’t suggest anything for another person to do, if I wouldn’t do it myself, however, I might offer resources that are valuable to someone else, but they may be out my own price range. As long as they fall within what I consider affordable for those in my target audience, then I’ll write about it.

Thus, my previous entry about the eBay stores really stayed on my mind long after I posted it. As I said, I have bought and sold on eBay since around 2000, but I never opened an actual store, and during my research to bring the information here, I started considering if it was something I could actually do. I also wondered if there were other means of getting products for the store besides the one or two I’d mentioned? In the process of delving deeper into it for a follow up entry, I found an array of options for opening online stores for little or no cost, including stores complete with drop shipping and click and drag interfaces, and other wholesale resources with which you can stock your eBay store at prices low enough to still provide you with a wide profit margin. I picked up quite an education on the whole niche industry, from how to spot a middle man who is draining your profits, to questions you should ask to ensure that you are dealing with a legitimate supplier source.

So in addition to everything else I’ve got going on, I’m so intrigued by the whole eBay shop thing that I’m going to open one. I’ll document all of my steps so if you’re hesitant at all about jumping in, you can follow along and see how it goes for me. I’m putting together a series of entries that will show you all of the alternatives for getting started with an ecommerce store for very little money or even free. I’ll also show you various options for both purchasing wholesale products and dropshipping, as well as the pros and cons of each method.

I’m really excited about doing this and I hope we all learn from it – if anyone wants to take the journey with me and open their stores at the same time, I invite you to discuss it here and we’ll compare notes and help each other along the way.

I’m still compiling the notes for the introduction of the series, and then I plan to get started with the shop within the next week or so. Stay tuned!

Sleep it off

Recently, I was knee deep into developing what will be one of my biggest web
projects ever. All day long, I was thinking in code, seeing lines and lines of script whenever I blinked for more than a second, and when I did manage to sleep at night, I was practically dreaming of solutions and processes that I needed to put into action the next morning. On the off chance that I was not in front of my computer, I would attempt to watch a movie and find myself staring at the tv screen but instead seeing my pc monitor in front of me while I worked over some design issue in my head. I was completely and totally immersed in my project and that’s literally all I could think about. It was nothing for me to sit down at the computer and pass 6-8 hours straight without stopping to eat or even use the bathroom. This was an even bigger feat considering I’d done it with a family going on with their lives behind my chair.

After one particularly grueling and frustrating day spent at my keyboard, I stood up and immediately buckled to the ground in pain – my knees and legs had locked up from stiffness and cramps shot up my thighs! I had put in a marathon 10 hours of work on the site and had barely taken a break. I remember phones and doorbells ringing, my kids trying to get my attention, but I was so focused on doing a perfect job that I effectively blocked all of that out. I’m always amazed at how I can work nonstop on my own projects but it absolutely destroys me to stay at my job for eight full hours. When you work for yourself, its so much easier to commit yourself to perfection no matter what the cost, you work feverishly and don’t clock-watch, because you are the boss and if the company succeeds you are able to reap the full benefits of that success and not just the little bit that’s parcelled out to you in your paycheck.

Thus, we put ourselves in the position to burn out a lot faster than if we were working for someone else. Many entrepreneurs have a tendency to go into their own businesses with all guns blazing, so to speak, and before you know it, you’re working 16 – 20 hours a day and just dragging yourself to bed in the twilight of the morning. You may think its all okay because its YOURS but remember, one of the reasons you started your own business was to have freedom from long hours and stressful deadlines, and to enjoy more time with your family. If you find that you’ve just recreated your former workplace in your den, then its time to stop and take a breather. It’s okay to take a day off – in fact, its necessary. When you work nonstop on a tedious project, after a while all of the information just bottlenecks in your brain stem somewhere and very little useful data is getting through. How many times have you reluctantly forced yourself to “sleep on” a problem and when you returned to it, you had a renewed sense of energy and vision, and your issue was suddenly quite simple?

Burnout is a real concern for entrepreneurs because, unlike in a traditional job, you’re trying to meet your own extremely high expectations and there’s no holiday from that. Be proud that you have such a high work ethic and have been blessed enough to be able to pursue your passion. But remember to celebrate your freedom by enjoying time off and relaxation. Leave breathing room in your projects for you to take a break and think away from the computer or desk. Take notes, if you will, from the comfort of your bed or in the wicker chair in your backyard. Then put the notes aside and go smell the flowers!! Learn not to feel guilty about leaving work behind for a moment. When you return to your work, you will find fresh ideas and a transformed approach to your work.

Believe that you will do your BEST work when you are healthy, rested and recharged.

Does anyone NOT know about eBay?

As far back as I can remember, my big sister had closets and closets full of designer clothes. When she was a teenager, the local malls weren't good enough for her - she had to finagle ways for her and her friends to travel to other cities to shop the malls with the fancier stores, and bring back things that others in her school had only seen in magazines. Today, although she's a more settled and practical wife and mother, she still has several closets full of clothing that are either unique, vintage or cutting edge fashion. She can still sniff out a designer deal from miles away, but somehow she's managed to hold on to at least a closet's worth of items from as far back as twenty years ago. It's always fun to visit and go through her things and laugh at how some of them are back in style and selling for hundreds of dollars today.


So naturally, everytime she comes to me and asks how she can make some extra money, my fingers start itching to set her up an eBay store. She would be the perfect candidate, she has tons of inventory that she is looking to sell, she wants a part time income that she can operate from home, and she has expert knowledge on her product. At around $17 per month, she could easily clear out her closets over time and make a nice nest egg in the process, as well as build up a steady clientele for the next phase of her store - wholesaling designer clothing and accessories. I've been off and running with her plans for years now, but I can't get her to cosign. She's not comfortable enough to go online and set it up herself, and we live hundreds of miles apart so its rather difficult for me to supervise the complete setup and operation of the store for her. The plan at this point calls for me to vacation there and spend the time taking photos of her items, setting up her store, and training her on the complete process of taking orders and shipping. So my dream for her is on hold right now.

But over the years, I have convinced at least twenty people to become eBay sellers. It's so easy and almost guaranteed to bring you some amount of success, that it should be a high school elective. It speaks to the most basic consumer principle - selling and buying. Even my 8 year old has been an eBay seller (through me) since he was around 4, when he discovered he could sell his unwanted toys and Yu Gi Oh cards there and make a little money, he's been hooked ever since. Although the problem with his sales is that he would conveniently ignore the part about eBay fees coming out of his profit, so I always ended up losing in those deals! Now that he's older, whenever he wants to sell something, I make sure to explain the small print so that he understands and not think there is no price to pay for every dollar earned.

There are two distinct types of sellers on eBay, those that just like to sell casually, maybe things around the house or things they've found at yard sales; and those that have turned it into a business and are Powersellers or operate eBay stores. I love that there are opportunities for everyone to make it whatever they choose. You can start small and grow, you can focus on a niche market or become a virtual flea market of your own, you totally control your business and target.

It's such a simple process although it can be intimidating if you're not a regular user of the site. If you're interested in giving it a try, I would suggest you just spend some time hanging out there searching for things, reading feedback ratings, learning to identify the difference between the good sellers and the ones you want to avoid. Equally important, learn to identify the reliable buyers and the ones who just might leave you holding the bag. Browse the eBay forums and read some of the questions and answers there from both beginners and experienced users.

Then, if you like what you see, set up an account and make your first bid/purchase. It's been years since I opened my account but its still absolutely free to register and bid on items. Get familiar with the way it all works, go through a few small auctions and see how easy and addictive it can be. I often find myself searching on eBay for things I know I can get in the stores but I get a certain thrill out of bidding and winning it online.

In case you just want to establish a consistent side income by selling, your regular eBay account will work fine, you don't need to set up anything differently. When you want to buy, you buy, and when you want to sell, you just sell, there's no special configurations or upgrades you need to make. Lots of people do very well just shopping deep discount stores, warehouses or even garage and estate sales, and then offer the items on eBay for a nice profit. Remember, an item widely available
in your area may be a rare find in another state or even overseas, so don't assume that it would be worthless - the entire world is eBaying at this point so it opens up a wealth of otherwise unreachable consumers. Another relative of mine goes to thrift stores and buys clothing and purses, then resells them on eBay for sometimes double what she paid - if you shop at the right times (delivery days), and in the right areas (look for thrift stores located near more affluent communities) you can get incredible bargains.

As I said earlier, the eBay stores are a very reasonable monthly fee of around $15. Having a store, as opposed to just selling from your account, allows you to manage your business, well, like a business. It has all sorts of inventory, accounting and management tools that help you with invoicing and shipping, as well as marketing. The eBay store identity also gives you a little more validity as a seller, and it allows you to build and design your presence into something that entices the buyer and turns them into a repeat customer. Not only that, you can purchase a domain name and direct it to your eBay store, then submit to the search engines so you can boost your rankings and ensure maximum exposure for your auctions.

I think when you approach eBay like a true business and not just as a way to clear out your attic, you really have the potential to turn it into a serious stream of income. People are leaving their full time jobs and concentrating solely on their eBay stores, and as with anything else, when you have the ability to devote yourself fully, the growth is unlimited. Those stories about people making well over six figures yearly are real and the income is attainable - if you choose your products carefully and market them the same way you would market any other enterprise. Powersellers don't just list their items, go to sleep and wake up to thousands of dollars in their Paypal accounts. They use various promotion and advertising methods to market their stores, as well as search engine optimization techniques to ensure that they appear in your searches just like any other website. With millions of sellers on eBay, you need to stand out in the crowd, or else your Widget store is just another store selling widgets. Derek Gehl, the internet marketing guru, has a comprehensive cd course that examines the insider secrets to making huge profits on eBay. Now, generally, I take these types of announcements with a grain of salt, but his course is highly recommended by Roger Zimmerman of Pickaguru.com, and he's not an affiliate of any kind so he has a completely unbiased opinion. Derek is well respected as being an expert and for developing quality products and not just junk that you can find elsewhere on the internet, so if you're interested in looking at this further, I would suggest reviewing his product to help you get started.

What a lot of people don't know is that eBay maintains a guide to the most popular searches on the site, and its absolutely free and available here. Download that and browse to get an idea of what people are looking for - that should help you hone in on what YOU should be selling. It's updated monthly, so be sure to check for a new one each month to see how the trends may have changed.

If the whole shop/resale tactic isn't for you, you might want to explore product sourcing and/or drop shipping. Product sourcing is a way of purchasing bulk inventory of the products and then reselling them. But the trick to this is to get an account with the manufacturing source - and they're not just opening their doors to everybody, or else everybody would be doing it! There are a lot of places online that claim to be direct sources for inventory, but if you investigate further, you'll find that these are still middle men who are making money off of selling the product to you, so you are still paying more than you need to. What you need is a direct link to the company that makes the product so its from their assembly lines to YOU, and there are only a few legitimate methods to obtaining such an account. Those methods are explained in the free eBook download here.

The book also discusses drop shipping, which is totally wonderful because you don't have to carry or stock any product! When you run an auction for an item that will be drop shipped, you have to be able to rely on the drop shipper to pick up the ball and complete the order in a timely fashion, and hopefully seamlessly so the customer doesn't even know that it has come from a different source. Again, the key is finding a reliable company that will work with you and maintain the quality of customer service that you need to provide. Drop shipping is one of the best ways to get started with your eBay business because it requires no upfront money to purchase inventory, all you need are your sources and your eBay account. Expect to pay a small but reasonable amount for access to your source catalog - but its well worth it when you are getting unlimited, authentic drop shipping accounts and not just some email leads that go nowhere.

For more information, please check out the sources above and see if eBay could be a low cost solution for you to get started!