Starting an Ebay Business – An Online Business Model that
Works
by Bill Platt
Published on this site: June 30th, 2004
THE REALITIES OF AN INTERNET BUSINESS
Millions of people are still coming online each year, and many
of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their
financial dreams come true.
The truth is that building a website to sell products and services
is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot of specific
knowledge or money will be required to be successful with a standard
website.
You must acquire skills --- or pay someone who already possesses
those skills --- in the following areas:
- Graphic design
- Copywriting
- HTML design
- Perl or PHP programming
- Database programming
- Marketing research
- Promotions
When this is understood, most people throw their hands up in frustration
and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires.
Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just lacking.
If you have reached this point yourself let me offer one piece
of advice...
DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET
More people than I can count are making a successful living online,
and none of them own their own website or send a single commercial
email to anyone.
How is this possible?
Two words, "Ebay auctions."
EBAY MAKES IT EASY
Ebay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more importantly,
Ebay already has floods of visitors eager to purchase your wares.
I have read that Ebay is serving a billion page views per day ---
now that is a ready supply of purchasers!
Ebay has provided everything you need to operate a successful business
online with three exceptions:
- Products to sell
- Time to list the products in the Ebay database
- Cash to acquire the products
CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS
Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what you
enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques. You
should select products consistent with what you enjoy for two reasons.
First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation for the
products your are offering.
Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you enjoy
doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you are
starting your own business, the hope is that you will be doing it
for a very long time.
I personally know people who have generated a nice living on Ebay
selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques.
FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL
I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of dollars
buying products that you may or may not be able to sell. A drop-shipper
is a middleman who is willing to permit you to buy an individual
product, and then they will put your business name on the return
address of the product package and handle
the actual delivery for you.
By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery to
the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in inventory.
If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider subscribing
to the drop-shippers directory:
http://thePhantomWriters.com/dsd.html
Through this site, you can get all of the information you need
to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000 products
from over 1,000 brand names.
LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY
Learning to use Ebay is pretty easy and straightforward. Ebay has
put forward a lot of effort to help people to become successful.
For example, Ebay has an entire area of their site devoted to the
online entrepreneur.
To get an overview of all of the services and tools that Ebay provides
to sellers, you may visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html
Ebay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be more
successful:
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html
THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS
Ebay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one another.
The speed of delivery is one of the most important factors that
sellers are rated on. By providing quick delivery, your buyers will
give you a good rating --- and more shoppers will bid on your products.
Ebay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate purchases
for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two systems
together.
Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account to your
personal account generally takes four days. Even with a merchant
account, the time gap is nearly the same. This time gap expands
the turn-around between the transaction and delivery of the product
unless you take action to speed the process.
If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize the handling
of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up and to increase
your ratings within the Ebay system.
But how can this be accomplished?
MANAGING CASH FLOW
While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done, it
is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest
rates to process your customer's purchase, is an unnecessary burden.
Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account with
a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has been
credited to your PayPal account, then use your debit card to immediately
process the order with your drop-shipper. You may even apply to
get the Paypal branded debit card which will be directly attached
to your Paypal account.
Some of you may even want to buy from wholesalers who require a
small minimum purchase to buy a specific lot of a particular product.
By utilizing wholesalers of this type, you can get a much better
price per unit purchased for resale. I strongly recommend that you
do not undertake this activity until you
have found that you can actually sell the products you want to purchase.
To learn more, check out the Light Bulk Wholesalers Directory:
http://thePhantomWriters.com/lbwd.html
Still, you might be asking yourself how you can do this on a tight
budget?
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE
Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account? Experts advise
that you not touch your retirement savings for anything other than
retirement income. That is good advice. Fortunately, it is possible
under special circumstances to
acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts. Beginning in 2002, even
the self-employed small business owner with no employees could open
his or her own 401(k), called a solo-owner 401(k), and borrow from
it just as employees with
big companies can.
Weigh this option against the others available to you. It only
makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in heavy
taxes and penalties for drawing your retirement money early. Seriously,
consider taking advantage of our historically low interest rates
to meet your cash flow needs.
To learn more about creating and borrowing from a solo-owner 401(k),
please visit:
http://www.investsafe.com
IN CONCLUSION
It is wise to choose your new business venture based on a model
that has proven itself over the long-term. Ebay has been proving
its concept since 1995; helping thousands of people build a successful
and very profitable business.
The time to act is now. Choose the product line that will give
you the most satisfaction and then get busy. Your success awaits
you.
Bill Platt owns http://thePhantomWriters.com
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