Flickr Creative Commons CC-BY photo by Simon Cunningham.
We recently came across a blog post by Lorraine at Clamco about How An eBayer’s Work Is Never Done. She talks about how much work eBay is, but then compares it to the work and money she makes at her regular job. It can be a tough decision to choose where to put your time.
It got us thinking about how we’re really running our eBay store for the long haul. This isn’t a get rich quick scheme, but a long term business that we’ve built up over the last five years. It’s taken time for us to balance a comfortable lifestyle with the demands of selling to the public.
We notice that many people get excited when they sell for the first couple months. It seems like easy money. Just scavenge some items at Goodwill and then flip it for cash. Cool!
But then, the reality of eBay sets in. You have to keep scavenging every couple days. You have to constantly list. You have to pack and ship (hopefully) each day without fail. And often the biggest problem is dealing with customers. Many sellers simply cannot handle all the questions, low offers, returns, and complaints that inevitably happen to anyone running a business that deals with the public.
One of the reasons our eBay business has become sustainable is our “corporate policy” concerning returns and customer issues. We call it the “Silent Method”. This podcast covers how we keep cool when a customer complains. Our blood pressure doesn’t go up a bit anymore. It’s all just a part of doing business.
Listen to our related podcast on How to Deal With Customers and Avoid Negative Feedback.
Direct .mp3 link. Direct ogg vorbis link.
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