Creative Commons Flickr Photo by velkr0
It’s easy to grab something from your closet, snap a photo, and sell it on eBay or Amazon. The mechanics of online selling are incredibly convenient. Every time we moved in the past, we always did a big sell off that helped us make money for gas or the next rental security deposit. But how did we figure out how to do eBay full time?
It’s all about building a lifestyle. Like any small business, it had to become our “everything” so we had to make sure we were building the life we wanted to live. We took time to figure out what we liked to scavenge and sell. We took time to figure out how much listing we needed to do each week to build up a large inventory. We took time to figure out how to make that listing time as enjoyable as possible. We made sure we balanced our fun scavenging days with “sit at home and list” days.
So when people write us about how to get started, we always remind folks to take their time. The three pitfalls we see with new sellers (and experienced ones) are burnout, being half-assed, and getting overwhelmed. It’s cool to sell for a couple weeks at a time, but can you create a pipeline that makes you money for the next ten years?
Burnout: It’s easy to get sick of listing “junk” all day. You mean this is now my life? This sucks. All I do is list and pack. List and pack. Boring. I started a data entry business that I hate.
Being Half-Ass: I want eBay to be my full time business so I’ve listed 100 things in my store. I’m now waiting since I don’t want to list too much stuff till I know it’ll sell. Why don’t I sell things everyday? I’ll never make enough money doing this. eBay sucks.
Getting Overwhelmed: I scavenged too much stuff too fast without a plan for storage and listing, and now I’m paralyzed by the dreaded unlisted piles everywhere. There’s so much to do so I don’t know where to start. Even if I work all day, it all seems endless. I’m now basically just a hoarder who lied about wanting to sell on eBay.
Trust me. We’ve been all these people BUT we pushed through. We took the time to develop the kind of days we wanted to have. Sleep a little late if we want. Have coffee and read the news. Turn on the radio and list for four or five hours. Take plenty of short breaks. But stuff has got to get done and we have to do it. Do a little every day and soon our sales are paying the bills. No one said it’d be easy (especially not us).
In this podcast, we also talk about tax and paperwork stuff. How to start a general partnership or sole proprietorship. Get a business bank account. Get an accountant. But this is the easy stuff. Once you’re making serious money there’ll by plenty of people to help you manage it.
Don’t forget previous podcasts we’ve done on this subject–
eBay Scavengers Episode 36: Our Process and How We Make a Living on eBay – Ryanne and Jay
eBay Scavengers Episode 68: Our Mom and Pop eBay Store Approch- How We Make a Living on eBay
eBay Scavengers Episode 12: Ryanne and Jay’s eBay Lifestyle
eBay Scavengers Episode 50: How To Do Accounting and Bookkeeping For Your Ebay Store Taxes
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