Two Ways to Grow Your Business Income
May 4, 2007
I’m excited to announce that I’m working on a strategy to double the amount of money our little eBay business brings in!
Until now the amount of money I’ve been able to make on eBay has been constrained by two main resources, products and time. Over the last week, I think I’ve made progress on both of these constraints.
Finding More Products
Thanks to Generation X Finance, I checked out a store called Tuesday Morning last week and was excited with what I found. As the image shows, they sell new products for 50–80% off retailer prices. With the additional markdowns I saw in the store, I can buy items for as low as 90% off retail price!
I’ve been limited to one main source of products that can be hit or miss on the deals. Although the margins may be somewhat lower for stuff from Tuesday Morning, it should provide the consistent source of products I’ve been looking for. In addition they have items I wouldn’t find at my other source, adding variety.
Finding More Time
Once I get the products home my biggest challenge has been finding the time to put them up for sale on eBay. My family and career obligations aren’t changing any, just the way I make use of my free time, i.e. 10 PM – 2 AM.
Thanks to some ideas from the book 4–Hour Work Week, I’m going to try and hire some help to get my backlog of products out on the web. If my spreadsheet calculations hold true, I’ll more than make up the cost of paying others by the increase of sales volume I hope to achieve.
Growing the Business Income
My current projections are that a new source of products combined with listing these products for sale in a more timely fashion should double the monthly income our eBay store generates. Time will tell; I’ll let you know how it goes.
One thing I have been researching is inventory tracking and management software to help manage the increase in products. If you have any recommendations I’d love to hear them.
Glad you were able to find Tuesday Morning useful, Ben! I’m just mad that it took me over 5 years to finally stop into the one by me. In fact I’m swinging by our local store later today as I heard they received some new items on Thursday.
And Ben, shoot me an email or hit me on AIM when you see me. For a few years I helped run a brick and mortar eBay retail/consignment store. We had hundreds of items listed at any given time so I may have some suggestions for software or processes that can save you time and money
Cool Jeremy, I’ll be in touch!
Ben,
Are you selling a lot of the exact same item, similar items (different in size, color, length but substantially the same), unique items that are made the same (figurines), or completely different items?
I’ve done some very similar things to what you are doing, and have used different systems to manage inventory depending on item type…
Joe
[...] Ben at Money Smart Life is working on scaling up his Ebay business. I think it is interesting that he is planning on hiring people to increase volume, and I decided to increase per piece margin by moving to the antique mall and selling larger items. [...]
[...] It’s these two points that made me a little skeptical when Ben over at Money Smart Life was thinking of using Tuesday Morning, a closeout chain, to supplement his eBay store selections. (Mainly, if Tuesday Morning is making a profit, what’s left for him, especially after he ships it and pays all of the eBay fees?) I certainly don’t want to jinx anyone, so I’ll reserve judgment and see how it plays out. Best wishes, Ben! [...]
Joe, I sell a wide variety of things, basically whatever I can buy for really cheap. I’d like to be more consistent in my products but right now it’s all about whatever I can get a deal on.