Things are picking up!

I have been slacking in the blog department, and with very good reason!  Business has definitely been picking up!  Very positive things are happening, so I figured I would write up a quick post.  My Ebay sales last month were my highest ever, and to most people they probably are not anything to brag about, but to me it is amazing!  I sold a record amount of my Jeep items, Redcat Racing was solid with the highest sales ever and I also sold some odds and ends that I was experimenting with for retail arbitrage. My Etsy store was also a record setting month (not hard to do when it is my first full month).  In regards to the decal startup, things are going pretty well also!  Had a race team order decals, as well as a small business that ordered car window decals and plenty of local one off decals as well!

The last week or so I have mostly been playing catch up, but my main focus this month is to fine tune my Ebay listings, as well as add to my listings.  At this point we are just over 100 listings running, but the goal is to realistically get up to the 200 mark by the end of the year.  I have access to around 25 more Redcat vehicles that I can list, as well as parts and accessories that should not be an issue.  The main research that I need to do involves the profit margins.  I need to make sure that the items I list have been maximized for profit, as well as "searchability"!

Vinyl Decal/Ebay progress!

I have not posted in awhile, and there is good reason for that...I have been busy!  Sales are up all around and the vinyl is slowly starting to take off!  My first few orders went very smoothly and I have been learning a lot just by watching tutorials etc... My fiance and I just started up the Facebook page for the decals, which I would love to have you check out at www.facebook.com/603decals (I would love it if you even gave it a like!)  So basically this is where I am at:

1. Custom Vinyl:  Currently sitting at about 10 decals sold (does not sound like much, but I feel great about it)  I also have a custom order for a friends race team that should be at least 20-25 more, that I am splitting the proceeds with him to help him raise capital.  Currently selling on Ebay, Etsy and locally.

    Goals:  More sales!  Also learning new techniques and getting the word out there.  Facebook should help, Instagram will help (check out 603decals on Instagram)

2. Ebay: The RC cars are doing well, I look at these as more of just perfect feedback and a little bit of cash to the business per month.  I typically sell 2 or so per week, and they are easy, pretty much autopilot.  The Jeep accessories are doing great, I had to drop my pricing a little bit to keep them in line but my margins are great!  You can check out the ebay store at http://stores.ebay.com/603Hobby

Experiment? Vinyl decals!

Today is the big day! (Technically last night was the big night I guess)  The vinyl cutter has arrived and is now setup in our home office!  The good news is that the setup was very straight forward...the bad newstuff is that I had no idea how to use it or the software that it came with...It was time to do some research!

You may or may not already know that I absolutely love Youtube!  I have never had a problem finding videos to teach me exactly what I need to know; which is just what I did for vinyl cutting.

Once I did some basic research (I'm not going to lie, I rushed through some basic videos so that I could get on to the good stuff...)

This is what I ended up with:

I have to say that for my first go at it, I'm pretty excited about the results!  Any tips that might help?  Let me know!

A new Income stream!

Today is a pretty exciting day!  We have decided to branch out and add another stream of income to the E-commerce side!  Would you like to know what it is??  OK, you twisted my arm, I’m going to spill it!  We purchased a vinyl decal cutter!  Obviously, I don’t plan on getting rich with vinyl decals but anything that we make from it will certainly help the bottom line.  The goal is to offer some Jeep, some other Auto related items as well as full custom decals!  I ordered it all today, so I should be seeing it next week!  When I get it set up in my office I will do an office set up picture to let you all see what I am working with!

The Ebay Experiment 1st quarter results

Sales Report 1/1/16-3/31/16

I decided that I would include quarterly “progress reports” on the blog to show how things are going.  January and February I basically took off completely to revamp the Ebay store/listings/etc…  Overall I feel great about the quarter, and April is already heading in the right direction.  March is when I began some drop shipping, as well as came up with two of my own products that accounted for much of those sales!

SALES SUMMARY_SALES
Session	Jan-16	Feb-16	Mar-16
Sales	$0.00	$56.33	$2,128.16
Month-to-month sales growth	0.00%	5633.00%	3678.00%
Ended listings	0	2	35
Ended items	0	2	223
Sold items	0	2	58
Sold items %	0.00%	100.00%	14.30%
Average sale price per item	$0.00	$28.17	$36.69
Total buyers	0	2	56
Total unique buyers	0	2	56
Repeat buyers %	0.00%	0.00%	0.00%
SALES SUMMARY_FEES
eBay
Fees
Insertion fees	$0.00	$0.00	$1.00
Listing feature fees	$0.00	$0.00	$1.00
Final value fees	$0.00	$5.63	$198.91
Subscription fees	$0.00	$0.00	$22.70
Subtotal	$0.00	$5.63	$223.61
Credits
Store referral credits	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Unpaid Item final value fee credits	$0.00	$5.00	$5.10
Other credits	$0.00	$0.63	$0.00
Subtotal	$0.00	$5.63	$5.10
Net eBay fees	$0.00	$0.00	$218.51
Net eBay fees as % of sales	0.00%	0.00%	10.30%
PayPal
Fees	$0.00	$0.48	$80.03
Credits	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Net PayPal fees	$0.00	$0.48	$80.03
Net PayPal fees as % sales	0.00%	0.90%	3.80%
eBay & PayPal
Net eBay and PayPal fees	$0.00	$0.48	$298.54
SALES SUMMARY_UNPAID ITEMS
Unpaid Item reminders sent	0	1	1
Final Value Fee claims requested	0	1	1
Unpaid Items reported as % of sold items	0.00%	50.00%	1.70%

Jeep Wrangler Grill T Shirt Project

Figured I would share a link to the T shirt campaign that I am currently working on!  This is a pretty cool (yet very basic) design , and I really like it!

Jeep Wrangler Grill Teespring

Low (or no) budget business startup part 3; keep it simple!

If you have not read part 1: Low (or no) budget business startup part 1

And part 2: Low (or no) budget business startup Part 2

I would suggest starting there.  Part three is going to be handled today, and this one is titled “Keep it simple!”  The overall premise of this low (or no) budget business startup guide is to show you that you can get up and running for very little (if any) money out of pocket.  I am not saying that this no budget business would be sustainable throughout all time, but at least you can get running to build some capital. 

Keeping it basic means exactly what it sounds like; don’t overdo it!  We are going to be keeping our outlay of cash at the beginning as minimal as possible, and sometimes we are going to have to cut some corners for the short term!  IF you plan on focusing on online selling (ecommerce) to get you started, I would highly recommend looking in to drop shipping.  I am actually writing a drop shipping guide as well, but unfortunately that is not ready for your eyes yet!  Drop shipping is pretty simple, the basic premise is:

-Sell an item (you do not have this item on hand)

-Receive payment for the item

-Purchase the item from your drop shipper of choice

-They ship the product to your customer

-Happy customer=profit! (you hope)

I have seen plenty of people try to start with this method and fail, for various reasons.  Some of the most common reasons are:

-Try to compete on price point right out of the gate.  You need to know your profit margins, to know what to list your item for.  If you are trying to keep up with Company ABC (who is doing $1 million in revenue) from a price perspective, its just not going to happen.  They make it in volume, and heavier wholesale discounts.  This will not work for you, and you will just end up losing money and being out of the game before you even started.  My goal here is to price myself somewhere in the middle of the road for the products that I offer.  I am typically not the least expensive and I am never the most expensive.  I find that to be a pretty sweet spot for my business model.

-Sell the wrong products.  This is a tough one, and there is definitely a learning curve.  My personal favorite sales platform is Ebay, which gives you some great tools to find what is selling, and how much it is selling for.  I have seen new business owners load listings with 1000’s of products, buy tons of equipment,  and spend all of the money in the world to look big and play with the big boys, only to fail because they don’t end up selling.  Do your research!

Keep your over head low!

-Don’t go out and buy the best laptop in the world; use your personal laptop or buy an inexpensive one to get you started.

-Don’t buy 1,000’s of dollars of inventory before you know what you will sell, and at what rate it will sell.

-You do not need to subscribe to the latest and greatest software programs to get started, keep it simple and there are plenty of free programs out there that work just fine!

-Treat this as an actual business!  

Low (or no) budget business startup part 2, get the wheels turning

Oh thank goodness you came back!  This post is part 2 of my “Low (or no) budget business startup” series.  If you missed part 1 (how dare you!)  You can get caught up here:
Low (or no) budget business startup part 1

Basically the goal of this series is to show you that you can start and run a business on an almost non-existent operating budget and still come out on top (hopefully).  This is not one of those blogs that is going to brag about how much money you can make if you buy my book and follow my steps (although I am working on a pretty great book right now…) this blog is really about showing you my journey, with all of its ups and downs and show you that it can be done!
Today’s post is called “get the wheels” turning.  That is my entire goal today, just to get you thinking of what you could create and build.  You don’t need to have a million dollar idea to get going; you just need an idea that works.  A perfect example of this is the first item that I started selling when I started my real Ebay business: http://www.ebay.com/itm/262382215401?item=262382215401&viewitem=&vxp=mtr
Not much to look at right?  Very inexpensive as well, tough to become a millionaire $5.49 at a time (before fees and shipping)  the reality is, this is a great product!  High profit margins, low cost of goods, and high demand….why are these in high demand and how did I come up with the idea to sell them?  I own a Jeep (actually I have owned many Jeeps) and when I lifted my Jeep and bought new, bigger tires I realized that my spare tire was pretty much useless.  I wanted to remove it, but when I did there were three holes left behind that I couldn’t leave open.  I figured that they must sell plugs for it, but after a ton of searching I really could not find many options.  AHA!  Found a need, found a product to fit the need and then started selling them.  Sometimes, it really is the simple!
My homework for you today is to get your wheels turning.  Think outside the box a little bit and work on a few ideas to solve a problem that you have faced.  Let me know what you figure out and make sure to read Part 3 here: Low (or no) budget business startup Part 3

Low (or no) budget business startup part 1 INTRO

Starting your business on a low (or no) budget part 1….intro

When most people think about starting a business they picture a brand new office and office furniture, a new computer, a staff full of highly skilled people, all of the latest technology and thousands of whatever widget they plan on selling.  Truth is, that would be great.  It really would, but most businesses don’t start like this.  When I set out to start up my Ebay business: 603 Hobby I knew that I needed to bootstrap that pig to the max!  My business is an experiment, and for this scientist I also need to continue my day job (I’m not actually a scientist, but I do have a day job)  This series of blog posts will break down how I started off with very little money and grew my business to millions in revenue!  Ok, back to reality; my business was established in January of this year, and to be honest I did absolutely nothing with it until March.  Ouch….on to the part where I said millions in revenue…well that is a bit of a stretch as well….for the month of March I ended up at about $2,200 in sales, which to me is really not bad at all.  Enough of my blabbing, let’s get to the good (or not so good, you be the judge) stuff!
Starting a business on a shoestring budget is certainly not for the weak at heart!  It takes a can do attitude (as well as a full time job lol) to get it off the ground.  Obviously, you need to make sure to check with your state offices to learn about registering your business before you get up and running.  Here in NH it is as simple as going online to the state site, paying a few bucks and voila!  Now, before you run to your laptop and create your new business, you might want to give some thought to your business name, as well as what you are actually going to do!
Now that we have the “legal” garbage out of the way; what the hell are we going to go into business to do?  Everybody has an opinion on how to start up a business and get business ideas….my advice is this: do something profitable and scalable  Plenty of people recommend turning your hobby into a business or just focusing on something you know or currently do.  I don’t 100% disagree with that, but I feel that there are better ideas.  Start with something scalable and profitable, then once that is running like a top go ahead and branch out!  At that point you have income from your first business and can afford to have some fun!

Thats it for the intro post...The great news is that you can read the next posts here:

Low (or no) budget Business startup part 2

Low (or no) budget Business startup part 3

Let's talk about fees...Baby???

So you found a product for $1 and it looks like it is selling for $5 on Ebay!!!! OMFG!!!!! $4 bucks easy money….next Ebay millionaire…maybe not.  Ebay in a surprise business move has decided to charge people fees to sell on it…I know that it sounds crazy but it is what it is.  What does this mean for you?  That $4 mad profit could become a negative profit item…This=not good for business.  The other side of it hits you when you collect your payment…no one is paying you in beads and trinkets,  and someone is going to charge you a fee for taking your credit card payment.  That someone, for me, is Paypal!  I personally love Paypal, it just simplifies everything and has great reports and functions if you end up registering a business account.  The downside to all of that is that they will hit your money for 2.9% + .30 cents.  How do we avoid selling items that actually lose us money?

You need to know what your fees are!  As I said in the last paragraph, both sides of the transaction are going to hit you for fees, and you need these numbers to factor your profitability.  The simple breakdown is: 

Paypal: Paypal charges 2.9% of the total collected, +.30 cents.  An example of this on a $5 sale is .445 cents (2.9% of 5=.145 cents+.30 cents)  Not too shabby!

Ebay:  I have an Ebay store, which does get you a discount on final value fees.  My average final value fee is 9%, which sounds like a lot, and in the grand scheme it is.  That said, you would spend far more in advertising than that 9% to hit the size audience that you get on these massive sites.  There are also categories that have even lower fees than 9%, but I wont be getting into that in this post.  A simple search will give you those answers.  A typical $5 sale for me on Ebay would have a fee of .45 cents.  Combine that with the Paypal example given above and your total fees would be about .90 cents.  Obviously there are shipping charges etc…but this at least give you the gist.  Now you just take your selling price, minus your fees and your product cost and there is your profit!  (This also does not take taxes into account,  but I am not an accountant)

I hope this helps!

Top 5 Ebay Blogs/Sites

A little round up of my personal top 5 Ebay blogs, Ebay sites!  That title is deceiving,  because I am going to have to throw a couple of Amazon related sites into the mix as well!

ScavengerLife

This site made my list because it is a solid, well written site.  They do Ebay/Amazon etc... and they are not afraid to share their knowledge.  Make sure to check out their "Archive of Knowledge"  and if you love the site make sure to subscribe!

Thrift Store Flipping

How can you not love people who have a cat named Chuck Norris?  Obviously these guys are into flipping thrift store items that they find, and this is a hobby that I am getting more interested in.  I like this site because they do break down their monthly numbers, but I have not seen a recent update :(

Ebaysellingcoach

From what is selling, to Success stories this blog has a lot of great information.  Their are some great coaching tutorials, as well as articles on where to find items!

Auction Nudge

This one is kept updated, and seems to be adding a fair amount of content on a regular basis.  There are plenty of articles/tutorials on running your Ebay store like a true business,  The writer of this blog currently makes some online auction tools that I am sure are worth a look!

The Ebay Experiment

A little bit of wishful thinking here!

Why follow up?

Why follow up?

I received a question today regarding Ebay.  The question was “why follow up after I have the sale?”

I think that this is a solid question, especially if you have never been in sales before.  I have been in sales for over 10 years now, and one of the major things that I swear by is follow up.  There are a few reasons why I feel that it is this important:

1.        It keeps you and your business fresh in your customers’ minds.  If you sell widgets, keep in touch, be “their” widget store!  I know that if you need my product today, odds are good that you will need more of my product later.  Keep in touch!

2.       New widgets/products and maybe even ask for referrals!  Having customers opt in to your newsletter, is a great start.  Explain the benefits of “being in the know” regarding your store, and keep them in the loop with what is coming soon.  You can also offer coupons, notify them of sales etc…

3.       Nip problems before they start!  I have found that solid follow up allows me to address and correct any issues that may arise, long before feedback is left.  This not only corrects any issues, but it tends to make people more inclined to leave you the positive feedback that you have earned!

4.       Constructive criticism.  I love feedback on my products as well as my customer service.  When I follow up I tend to ask if they were happy with their purchase, and if there was anything about the process that they would change.

Where do I find the products???

Ready to fire up your online empire???  Awesome, I’m happy for you and pumped that you are reading this!  Where do we start??  Start here:
Can I start online for $100??? And Create your product!

That gets some of the basics out of the way, but just like anything, a lot of this is going to be learned by doing.  There are tons of blog posts telling you how, why and when to do things, but it still comes down to you!  You need to find your rhythm, what works for you.  There is no boiler plate template that covers all.
Now that some of the basics are covered, where the heck do we find things to sell?  I threw together a quick list of ideas to get you started:

-Local retailers (Walmart, Rite aid, dollar stores)
-Garage sales
-Yard sales
-Thrift stores
-Amazon (plenty of posts and books about this, just Google “RETAIL ARBITRAGE”

Now you are thinking, geeeeeee thanks for the list asshole, what the hell do I do at these magical locations??  Easy, you search for opportunity!  Make sure that you have your smartphone with you, because you need to check what these items are selling for on the interweb.  Look for name brand items, clearance items and anything else that catches your eye.  If it catches your eye odds are good that it will catch someone else’s eye online (unless crushed velvet paintings and t shirts with panthers catch your eye….)

Can you start your Ebay business for under $100??

Can you start your Ebay business for under $100??

I received this question twice yesterday, and wanted to write a quick post to show that it is possible.  This is not even a super shoestring budget either, it really gives you all of the basics.  This list does assume that you either have a computer with internet access or a smartphone (at this point I would hope that you would have both, we put a man on the moon almost 50 years ago for crying out loud)
1. Product:
2. Packing tape
3. Scissors
4. Bubble wrap
5. Pens (now things are getting serious)
That is not the end all be all list.  A lot of those items you probably already have!  I pretty much figured you could spend $100, $75 of which would be product.  I am writing an article about sourcing product that I will post soon.  The last of the cash I would head over to Godaddy.Com and get a domain name and whatever else tickles your fancy (they offer website builders, hosting etc...)  this is great as then you have the website to match your online seller account and you can also use the site for sales!  This is relatively inexpensive, and make sure that you grab a coupon code for Godaddy from a site like Retailmenot (my personal favorite!)

Make sure to read my ongoing series about Low (or no) budget business startup!  You can read each post here:

Low (or no) budget business startup Part 1

Low (or no) budget business startup Part 2

Low (or no) budget business startup Part 3

Creating your own product (kind of)

Who is going to take my money?!?!?

One of the major tasks that I took on when I decided to jump on Ebay to make a living, was sourcing/coming up with my own products to sell.  You can read about some great spots to find stuff to sell here: Finding products!

 When I say this I don’t mean that you have to invent something new; this could be as simple as purchasing a tough to find item that you needed for yourself.  Solving a problem is the best product to sell!  It does not have to solve everyone’s problems, it just needs to solve somebody’s.  An example of this would be if you were looking for a specific bolt for your motorcycle.  You search all over google for it using what you would think would be standard terms.  You find nothing.  Eventually, you do find the size of the bolts, and order yourself a bunch wholesale.  Now you just need to create a compelling ad, list those bolts up and solve those peoples problem. 

Solve a problem!

This does not just go for manufactured products either!  This can be a written product that you create!  A D.I.Y., how to, or instructional E-book, course etc… If you deal with a common problem (such as learning guitar chords) once you have your solution, write a tutorial.  This does not just have to be to sell, it can also be used as a gift for your subscribers. 

This should be enough to start my empire...

When you find a problem should you just buy a million pallets of them and list them up?  Probably not!  Take a look on Ebay, Amazon and whatever site you are looking to work on and see what the competition is.  Make sure to search for Keywords that best describe your solution to see how many are out there (if any) and how many are selling.

Obviously, if you are looking for it, somebody else is as well.  In closing, I have tweaked my daily mindset to always be looking for a problem to solve.  This sounds simple, and once you make it a focus you will find that it is!  I have a few solutions up on my Ebay store currently, feel free to check them out and let me know what you think: EBAY!!  Also, once you are done purchasing every item that I offer in my store, please head over to my work in progress: TheEbayExperiment.com