10 easy steps to starting on eBay
30 October 2006This post is inspired by the list at Entrepreneur.com entitled eBay made easy. I’m going to take their list and give you some extra insight from someone who does eBay and runs an eBay business.
1. Just Do It.
If you’re not sure where to begin, the best way to start is to just start. Begin cleaning out your closets, basement, garage, or anything else where you store stuff you don’t use often. Start small and learn to list a few items at a time.
2. Create a Routine
Set aside time on set days to do your listing, packing, and shipping. This is actually a little more important than most people think. If you count on only doing your eBay stuff when you have the free time, you’ll get next to nothing done. Even if it’s only a few one-hour blocks every other day, scheduling the time will help you get it all done.
3. Take a good picture
Taking a picture at all is an important step. Items will sell much better if they have a picture. They will sell even better than that if the picture is clear, cropped, and well lit.
4. Build Trust
Take care of your customers and they will keep coming back. Answer questions promptly and accurately. Ship quickly. The better your customer service, the more trust you will build.
5. Stick with a niche
If you plan on your eBay business becoming anything more than a part-time business, you’d better find a niche. You can make a fair amount of money selling odds and ends, but if you want to get serious, you need to find a niche of products and stick with it.
6. Invest in equipment
You’ve probably already got a computer. You’ll need a digital camera as well. Best place to find one of those? eBay. It’s a business expense so if you’ve set up your business properly with the state/feds it’s a write-off as well. A postal scale will become absolutely necessary later. I would suggest that you buy one that will cover somewhere between 35 and 50 pounds. That will cover much of what you will sell unless you have big heavy items and will save you lots and lots of time at the post office.
7. Be Flexible
Just because the widgets are hot right now doesn’t mean that they will be next month. Learn to recognize trends on eBay so you don’t get left out in the cold by the new hot products.
8. Build your brand
Why do you know the names Red Lobster, Walmart, Kmart, Sears, and Home Depot? Because they all have strong brand recognition. When people think of buying home supplies, they think about going to Home Depot with their signature orange uniforms. Build your own brand. Use your name consistently. Use the same logo and colors all the time. Use them as often as possible. Get custom invoices, business cards, and even mailing labels with your logo. The more recognizable your brand becomes, the more often people will seek it out.
9. Negotiate shipping charges.
Once you get a feel for how much business you’re going to be doing, approach shipping companies like DHL, UPS, and FedEx. Many of them will negotiate to lower shipping charges if you are going to do enough volume through them. Lower shipping charges to you becomes lower shipping charges to your customers. That’s an advantage.
10. Join the eBay community.
There is much to be learned and gained from the eBay community. There are a plethora of newsletters, sites, and forums that you can join including the official eBay ones. They are great places to learn about your new eBay business.
The most important of these steps is number 1. The other nine make absolutely no difference if you haven’t done number 1. You can also make a fair bit of business out of doing just number 1 and working on the rest as you go.
So what are you waiting for? Start today!
[tags]ebay, selling, business, ebay business[/tags]
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October 30th, 2006 at 11:11 am
The Microsoft Office Accounting integration to eBay is better than the normal eBay submission process. This helps eBay customers use Office Accounting Express to seamlessly list and manage their orders. The wizard process is very intuitive.
The Microsoft Office Accounting also offers a number of other services that make life of a small business easier including integrated Credit Card processing, payroll, credit monitoring.