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Yes, there are tons of articles on what and how to sell on Ebay, but where is the info on how to creatively use my time and make more money. If you are like many people who have started to sell on ebay while working that full time job, you are probably doing a balancing act and burning the candle at both ends. I know I did that at first because it was so enticing to put something on ebay and watch the bids and sell the item. Your like going OK what next, what can I sell and before you know it your HOOKED!!
The first way of Maximizing your time is to have a organized working system that you can spend less time doing your ebay thing yet still make a good profit. If you have worked for someone else most of your life, a transition to working for yourself can be intimidating.
Lessons we have learned in the last 30 years of working for ourselves from home:
Key Point #1 (THE ULTIMATE KEY FACTOR IN SUCCESS) - Have a Dream and Purpose of why you want to do this. What will make you do work your ebay business instead of letting the distractions deter you. Do you want to quit your job, buy a new car, have spending money for the extra's??
You will be surprised at how well you can manage your time when you do not let the circumstance of the day, or what we like to call the "drama of the day" control what you do. YOU control the circumstance by having a well defined DREAM!!
The first way of Maximizing your time is to have a organized working system that you can spend less time doing your ebay thing yet still make a good profit. If you have worked for someone else most of your life, a transition to working for yourself can be intimidating.
Lessons we have learned in the last 30 years of working for ourselves from home:
Key Point #1 (THE ULTIMATE KEY FACTOR IN SUCCESS) - Have a Dream and Purpose of why you want to do this. What will make you do work your ebay business instead of letting the distractions deter you. Do you want to quit your job, buy a new car, have spending money for the extra's??
You will be surprised at how well you can manage your time when you do not let the circumstance of the day, or what we like to call the "drama of the day" control what you do. YOU control the circumstance by having a well defined DREAM!!
Next create a system that flows: In other words move from one function to the next, have everything planned out from your picture taking to listing in an orderly fashion. Let me use our system as an example of what I mean. I sell designer consignment clothing so there is a lot of preparation to get these listed you may sell something that is less time consuming and you may even sell the same exact thing over and over. So this system works well for a simple listing to a more complicated and time consuming listing such as individual clothing pieces.
1. I do my sorting of what I want to list in to groupings of 15 items. I have over 300+ items each week that I receive and I have to get them into some kind of order. If I don't it is a catastophy, we have limited space and there has to be a sense of order. Doing it into groupings keeps it organized and helps me to set a goal to list a grouping a day. It takes me around 2 hours to totally sort into groupings 300 garments or approx. 6 minutes per grouping.
2. I then take pictures of that grouping, next the measurements are recorded and put on to a form that we have developed. That form is assigned a # that corresponds to the folder I have put those images into on the hosting site that I use for listing. These items then go into a plastic bin with the form inside. It takes approx. 1 hour for each grouping.
3. I then upload my images and edit them. This takes approx. 20 mins per grouping. I put them into the corresponding folder # and "walla" they are reading for listing.
3. The next step is to take the form and list the basic info ( catagory, size, color etc.) into a saved listing template that we have already set up and can use over and over again. This saved listing has the same folder # we assigned to that grouping. This takes approx. 40 min. Can I just put a plug in for Auctiva here. It is a simple and free way to keep my images and templates organized, and did I say it is FREE!!!
4. Once these items are in the saved listings it is just a matter of me taking the bin into my office, writing the Title and description, changing the template design and putting the images in that I have stored, pricing the item and scheduling or posting it. This usually takes me about 1 1/2 hours for 1 grouping. (this accounts for distractions in this hour, like the computer hanging up or a question needs immediate attention etc.) I then transfer the listed items into another bin corresponding to that particular day, ie: Monday, Tuesday, etc. All my listing for the day are in a bin or bins depending on the amount. This way if there is a question it is easy enough to go to that days bin and pull it out and answer the question.
So all in all it takes me about 3 1/2 hours from start to finish to get 15 items on. (Remember I sell individual clothing items) Now let's divide that into $$$ per hour. We sell anywhere from 50% to 60% of what we put up for auction and a lot of our items sell for under $20. Now if we do $100 a day in sales that equates to around $28.00 an hour. Of course when we want to make more we put on higher end items or more items. Now you do have to take out the expenses, but all in all that is more then what a lot of people make an hour working and they have deductions that come out of their hourly wage. You are basically keeping more money per hour because of tax deductions etc. So you see we are
I have not taking into account all the things we sell from our ebay store which is open 24/7. So when I get up in the morning I have made sales which means I made money while I was sleeping!!! This may not be a huge amount of money and it certainly does not go far in silicon valley, but hey a few thousand extra a month can make some of those dreams and goals you have a reality.
So if you really want to make a difference in your cash flow, have a system that works like running water and you will have $$$$$ running onto your Pay Pal Account.
1. I do my sorting of what I want to list in to groupings of 15 items. I have over 300+ items each week that I receive and I have to get them into some kind of order. If I don't it is a catastophy, we have limited space and there has to be a sense of order. Doing it into groupings keeps it organized and helps me to set a goal to list a grouping a day. It takes me around 2 hours to totally sort into groupings 300 garments or approx. 6 minutes per grouping.
2. I then take pictures of that grouping, next the measurements are recorded and put on to a form that we have developed. That form is assigned a # that corresponds to the folder I have put those images into on the hosting site that I use for listing. These items then go into a plastic bin with the form inside. It takes approx. 1 hour for each grouping.
3. I then upload my images and edit them. This takes approx. 20 mins per grouping. I put them into the corresponding folder # and "walla" they are reading for listing.
3. The next step is to take the form and list the basic info ( catagory, size, color etc.) into a saved listing template that we have already set up and can use over and over again. This saved listing has the same folder # we assigned to that grouping. This takes approx. 40 min. Can I just put a plug in for Auctiva here. It is a simple and free way to keep my images and templates organized, and did I say it is FREE!!!
4. Once these items are in the saved listings it is just a matter of me taking the bin into my office, writing the Title and description, changing the template design and putting the images in that I have stored, pricing the item and scheduling or posting it. This usually takes me about 1 1/2 hours for 1 grouping. (this accounts for distractions in this hour, like the computer hanging up or a question needs immediate attention etc.) I then transfer the listed items into another bin corresponding to that particular day, ie: Monday, Tuesday, etc. All my listing for the day are in a bin or bins depending on the amount. This way if there is a question it is easy enough to go to that days bin and pull it out and answer the question.
So all in all it takes me about 3 1/2 hours from start to finish to get 15 items on. (Remember I sell individual clothing items) Now let's divide that into $$$ per hour. We sell anywhere from 50% to 60% of what we put up for auction and a lot of our items sell for under $20. Now if we do $100 a day in sales that equates to around $28.00 an hour. Of course when we want to make more we put on higher end items or more items. Now you do have to take out the expenses, but all in all that is more then what a lot of people make an hour working and they have deductions that come out of their hourly wage. You are basically keeping more money per hour because of tax deductions etc. So you see we are
I have not taking into account all the things we sell from our ebay store which is open 24/7. So when I get up in the morning I have made sales which means I made money while I was sleeping!!! This may not be a huge amount of money and it certainly does not go far in silicon valley, but hey a few thousand extra a month can make some of those dreams and goals you have a reality.
So if you really want to make a difference in your cash flow, have a system that works like running water and you will have $$$$$ running onto your Pay Pal Account.
Guide created: 07/04/06 (updated 08/22/07)
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