Today I want to talk about a few things that you can do to help your eBay business ride out the economic downturn that we are currently experiencing.

1. Don’t Panic

I know someone who began selling on eBay on a small-time basis a little over a year ago. He had some success and his business grew each month until the economy started going south. He became convinced that we were headed for a huge depression. He was convinced people would stop spending money for all but the bare necessities. He stopped spending money for new inventory and his growing business died.

I’m not saying you shouldn’t be concerned about what’s happening with the economy. But the solution isn’t panicking. Stay level-headed, look at the situation, and come up with a logical plan to keep your business profitable and growing.

2. Focus On Your eBay Business

Don’t get distracted from building your eBay business. In times like today many people have a tendency to get distracted by, and caught up in, all the negativity they read and hear about in the news to the detriment of their business. Don’t allow yourself to be one of those people.

Stay focused on what you are trying to accomplish. If you don’t already have one, put a plan in place for where you want your business to go and how you are going to take it there. Then tune out the negativity and focus on what you need to do to accomplish that plan.

3. Pay Attention To Expenses

Take a hard cook look at any regular monthly expenses your eBay business has. Go through all your reoccurring expense and take a hard look at what you are paying for. Some of these are vital to the survival and profitability of your business.

Are there things you are paying for that you hardly ever use? Are there others that you are paying for but that you need? Are there cheaper alternatives that will work just as well or better?

4. Work Hard & Work Smart

Anyone who tells you that building a successful part-time or full-time eBay business doesn’t take some hard work never had a successful eBay business. I see a lot of sellers wasting hours of time each day on trivial things.

Identify the things you need to do to keep your business on track and growing and then do those things religiously. Learn how to manage your time, eliminate distractions, identify goals and objectives, and stay focused.

5. Explore Ways To Improve & Expand Your Business

Implementing a well thought out expansion of your eBay business now will not only increase your profits now, but your business will be better placed when times to get better.

Are there venues you can expand your current operation into that will broaden your visibility and sales? Are there inventory categories you could add that people will be looking for during hard times? Conversely, are there categories you should drop because they are only marginally profitable?

What improvements could you make that might broaden your customer base? Streamline how you do business? Add to your bottom line?

Now isn’t the time to cut back. It’s a golden opportunity to grow.

6. Look For Opportunities

During a economic downturn there are always opportunities for those who are astute enough to recognize them.

Some businesses are going to be forced to close. Likely they will hold a going-out-of-business sale before they close or a liquidation sale after they close. Depending upon the business these may provide excellent opportunities for you to pick up very salable inventory at drastically reduced prices.

Individuals and families are likely to decide to sell things that they have collected or that have been in their families for years. Watch your local classified ads. There will be some great chances to purchase inventory over the next few months. You might even consider placing some kind of generic “Wanted To Buy” ad in your local paper or shopper.

What other opportunities can you come up with?

7. Search Out Additional Income Streams

Do you sell only one or two types of items? Now is a good time to brand out into other kinds of inventory. If you only sell books it might be worth while to explore adding quality used clothing to the mix.

The key is to experiment and test different income streams, even old ones that you’ve previously written off. Time have changed and you may find they do quite well in today’s economy.

8. Build Relationships With Your Customers

Turning satisfied customers into repeat customers has always made good business sense. In today’s business environment it’s even more important. If you don’t already have a newsletter buyers can opt-in to, now is a great time to start one. Maybe it means starting a blog or even a discussion forum for customers centered around what you specialize in.

What can you do to bring as many first time customers back to buy again as possible?

9. Build Networks

Both on-line social networking and real life networks can open up great opportunities and provide you with support in tough times. If you live in a metropolitan area, is there a local eBay seller’s group in your area? If there is join. If there isn’t consider starting one.

There are several large and small on-line communities made up of people who sell on eBay. Check a few of them out. Find one or two whose focus is positive rather and negative and join in the conversation.

Nobody knows everything about selling on eBay. Working with other sellers to support each other is beneficial to all concerned.

10. Make Well Thought Out Investments In Your Business

In #3 above I talked about reducing your business expenses. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t invest money in your business. If an investment of $5 or even $50 a month will allow you to recoup your investment each month and improve the profitability of your business, invest the money.

In conclusion, people in both our country and many others are going through some tough economic times right now. And, there’s no clear deadline of when things will improve. But if you focus on making your eBay business more profitable now, you efforts will not only help you and your family get through it all, it will mean a stronger more profitable business in the future.

Photograph by Katrina Tuliao.

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