2009 is here. What are you going to do to take your business to the next level?
If you are selling antiques, collectibles, books, or other used items on Amazon, eBay, or some other on-line venue - 2009 is the time to ramp up your business and expand.
That’s right! In the middle of uncertain economic times, when so many people are either cutting back their eBay listings or abandoning eBay altogether, now is the time you should become more aggressive and look for ways to expand and grow your business.
Let’s take a look at how, and why, you should.
Diversify
Warren Buffett is one of the world’s most successful investors. Does he have all his assets invested in one stock? Of course not. His investments are diversified.
To make 2009 your best year ever, you need to be diversified also. With a little thought you should be able to come up with several ways to do this but here are a few ideas to get you started.
1. Diversify what you regularly sell. Using closed auctions on eBay or a third party research tool such as Terapeak you can find hundreds of items that have buyers ready to bid on them.
To start, try to find one or two things that you have a good chance of finding while looking for what you already sell. If you are already selling book, you probably spend a fair amount of time in thrift stores so you might consider diversifying into dinnerware or popular name brand clothing.
If you aren’t already selling them, books are probably one of the easiest things to add to your inventory. They can be found almost every where and there are numerous resources available on-line to help you learn what does, and doesn’t sell.
2. Diversify your inventory sources. Garage sales, auction sales, thrift stores, book sales, estate sales, flea markets, antique shows, antique shops/malls, and private parties are all excellent sources for inventory. How many of these are you regularly using?
For many, my guess would be only two or three at best. Broaden your sources of inventory and I will guarantee you will sell more and your business will grow.
3. Diversify your sales venues. Currently, regardless of what many people way, eBay is still the premiere venue for sales of the kind of inventory this blog talks about. But that doesn’t mean it should be your only sales venue.
If you sell books do you only have them on Amazon? There are numerous other venues you can use in addition to Amazon that will increase you monthly sales. eBay is only one of them.
If you currently only sell via the auction format, look at placing some of your inventory on one of the many fixed price venues.
Check out some of the newer auction venues. See Auctions. Etsy, and Bonanzle are just just a few that some people are reporting some measure of success with.
If you have abandoned eBay completely for another venue, start using it again. Even with all the problems so many people are talking about, eBay is still the best sales venue for most of the kind of inventory talked about here.
Make Better Use Of Your Time
If possible find the time to devote an additional two or three hours a week to your business and then make more efficient use of the time you spend on your business. Don’t think either of those are possible? Here are a few ideas.
1. For the next two weeks, keep a time-log broken down into ten or fifteen minute intervals of how you spend your time when working on your business. I guarantee you that you will find ways to improve your efficiency.
2. Simplify and automate the routine things you do repeatedly.
3. Eliminate distractions.
4. Get your spouse and/or children involved in the business.
Invest In Your Business
Irregardless of what you sell, there are services and resources that will help you expand your business and make it more profitable. The mistake many people make is that they view the cost of these resources as an expense when they should be viewing them as an investment.
Even if you have to pay $10 a month for Internet access on your cell phone, a service such as ScoutPal will only cost $20 a month. If you sell books, between the books you buy that you wouldn’t have without it and the books you don’t buy that you would have with out it, you will make that $20 back in the first week of each month. After that, it’s all profit you wouldn’t have had without it.
An investment in a research service such as Terapeak will pay for itself many times over when researching new things to sell.
Don’t go on a spending spree and buy everything out there, but do take a serious look at interesting resources and determine if the investment is worth the potential return for you.
Don’t Sweat The Small Stuff
If you are selling things like HDTVs, cell phones, new appliances, or similar items, DSRs, where you appear in Best Match results, and such things may be important. For the kind of things we talk about here, as long as you are running your business in an ethical manner, those things have little, if any, impact on your business. They are all small stuff.
I could show you plenty of sellers making $75,000 to $100,000 or more per year who don’t have stellar DSRs; who will never get a rebate on their listing fees; and who will never get preferential treatment in search results.
They aren’t spending their time worrying about it. They are too busy sourcing inventory, packing sold items, and making money.
Photograph by C. P. Storm.
Popularity: 27% [?]
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
