Preparing for Rain~Repost

This is my favorite post from the past by far…….hope you enjoy!

I just have to share this with all of you to encourage you in your eBay sales.

In the movie “Facing the Giants” (if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.) there’s a scene where this man who comes to the school to pray over the student’s lockers tells the football coach to “prepare for rain.”

He tells him a story about two farmers. One goes out and plows and plants his field believing that God will bring the rain. The other farmer doesn’t prepare his field. When the rain comes, who do you think will reap the harvest? Why, the farmer who prepared his field, right?

I’ve been trying to get my sales during the Christmas season (Nov&Dec) up to 3k a month. They’ve been as high as $2,684.79 and then have dropped back down. I keep trying to get them up to the $2,700 mark as a small step on my way to 3k.

Last night before bed, my sales were at $2,374.69. UGGGGGHHHHH…..they had dropped AGAIN.

I went to bed and started praying. I told God that my sales were nearly $400 away from the goal I had been trying to reach and that I REALLY needed to have a $400 sales day tomorrow to get caught back up. (I’ve never had a $400 sales day, so this is a tall order for me.)

I reminded God that $400 is NOTHING to Him and that I’ve done the work…...I’ve prepared for rain. I’ve stocked my store with lots of items and items at higher prices, I have the potential to have a $400 sales day if He’d just bring the sales my way.

I fell asleep confident that God would grant me my $400 sales day, or close to it anyway.

I now believe that God shook His head and laughed at me as I was falling asleep because when I woke up this morning, I had several offers. I started reviewing and accepting them thinking “This is good God, we’re headed in the right direction today.”

I got to my last offer.

It was an offer on the Oskar Mienel Violin. “This had better be a REAL offer I thought to myself as I clicked on it.”

It was.

The offer was for $4,000.00

I’m selling it for a friend so I sent her a text: “Just got an offer on the Violin, 4K. Let me know what you think.” All the while praying while I waited to hear from her.

Her reply: “Let’s do it!”

“Thank you God!” I prayed……”Now, please help them pay for it right away.”

I went out to run an errand and stopped by the thrift store. I got home and it is PAID and he sent COMPLETE instructions on how to safely package the violin

What God said to me today is this: “You’re right Rachel, $400 is nothing to me, and neither is $4,000.00.”

WOW, I don’t even know what to think right now. I am still in shock. I am so overjoyed, my hands are shaking as I type this and I am about to cry.

I don’t share this with you to brag or boast, but simply to let you know that despite this economy, it can be done. God is so much greater and bigger than any economic crisis.

So, keep stocking your stores and preparing for rain.

Here’s a post about Facing the Giants that Lizzie wrote awhile ago.

Working Through the Slow Times

Every online seller that I know goes through periods of time when they’re selling things right and left and other periods of time when their sales are S-L-L-O-O-O-W-W-W-W.

There are a lot of factors that contribute to an increase or decrease of sales online.  The time of year has a lot to do with sales.

Most sellers experience a high volume of sales during the holiday season and into January, followed by a very slow time in February, March and April.

I remember the first year I sold on eBay…….March and April were HORRIBLE.  I was lucky to sell a few hundred dollars those months.

March and April still tend to slow down for me, but not quite that much.

I’ve learned to prepare for sales to slow down that time of year, and I’ve learned how to combat it.  I still tend to see my sales go up after April, but at least they’re not as low in March and April as they used to be.

#1, A well stocked store can contribute to an increase in sales.

In the last month, I have had several items sell for $39.99 and $49.99, so it’s not that customers aren’t buying.  You have to be prepared for them, have items that they’re looking for.  You can have a store full of items, but if the majority of your items are Christmas items or Winter clothes, you may not see very high sales this time of year.

#2, The longer you’re selling online, the less this time of year will affect you…….why is that?

Well, if you’re like me, you analyze and trouble shoot and learn to get through this time of year without your sales completely going dead.  You also have a higher feedback ranking (hopefully) this year than you did last year, and that helps buyers trust your listings more.

#3, I know I say this over and over and sometimes I feel like broken record, but keep listing through the slow times.

It’s true.  This weekend, from Friday thru Monday, I listed almost 50 new items in my store, and my sales have gone way up this week compared to last week.  Some of the items that sold were new items that I listed and some were items that have been listed for awhile, either way, it can’t sell if it’s not listed.

Making a Difference

Why do I share out of my eBay earnings?

I feel like God has blessed me with so much, that the least I can do is share just a little with someone else.

I didn’t know who I would share with in 2012 until the week of Christmas, 2011.

Lizzie and her son mention things once in awhile about the child they sponsor through Compassion.  She mentioned  that my nephew was raising money to buy water filters for families that don’t have safe drinking water.  As I  packed their Christmas package, I put $10 in a note for him  for his water project, and sent their gifts off the next morning.

About a week later, I really began thinking about who I would give some of my eBay money to every month in the new year.  It’s not like there aren’t tons and tons of worthy causes to choose from, but I wanted one that not only would I be able to give to from my earnings, but also one that would be more of a family project.  My daughter is 6, and since I’m in the line of work I’m in and at the thrift stores all the time, she has EVERYTHING she could ever want and more. (all of them were great deals, I promise!)

I decided that I want to start teaching her and helping her realize that there are lots of kids out there who don’t even have a small percentage of what she has.  Kids who’s families have a tough time even buying food.  I pulled up the Compassion website, and after just a couple of minutes of looking, I had to close the browser.  It was too much, absolutely overwhelming.  The need is great. We are abundantly blessed, and it just killed me to read some of the conditions these children are living in.  I wanted to support them all.  HOW do you choose just ONE?

The next morning, I talked to my daughter about the idea, and she was VERY excited about it.  I asked her if she’d like to see if there were any kids who have her birthday that we could sponsor.  We put in her birth date and seven kids came up who needed sponsors.  I asked her to look through them and decide which one we would sponsor. I explained to her the symbols on their pictures, showing that they’ve been waiting for a sponsor longer than 6 months, or the symbol that shows that they live in a village affected by AIDS.

She took her time clicking on them and reading them and then finally said, “This is the one I want to help, mama!”  I took one look and completely fell in love with this little guy!

Angel has her same birthday, he’s just a year older.  He lives in El Salvador with his parents and siblings.  Angel goes to school and is being taught about God’s love for him at his local Compassion center.  Pictures of Angel are in our kitchen, on the background of my laptop, on our digital picture frame, and I have a bookmark from Compassion with his picture on it in my Bible.  We’re new at being Compassion sponsors, but we’re working on making him just as much a part of our daily life as any other family member.

“And of some have compassion, making a difference.”  Jude 1:22

To visit Compassion International’s site click here.

Business Blogs I Read

Smaller Box

Everything Etsy

Meylah

Blogging with Amy

Blog Guidebook

Of course The Selling Sisters (goes without mentioning…)
What about you? What blogs do you read about/for business?

What Can I Expect When I Open An eBay Store?~Repost

Many people start selling on eBay to get rid of things from around the house or to make some quick cash, so they start a selling account and list auctions.

After they get bit by the “eBay bug” they start listing more frequently and start thinking about opening an eBay store.

In my opinion, eBay stores are for the serious seller who is planning to sell on eBay long term.

If you know you’re going to sell on eBay long term, then a store is the way to go.

Please be aware though, that opening an eBay store is not the equivalent of sprinkling magic fairy dust on your eBay listings……just because you open a store, doesn’t mean you’ll be rolling in dough tomorrow morning.

Opening an eBay store is the same as opening a brick and mortar store in many ways. It takes time to build a business, so be patient. The customers will come. While you’re waiting for them to come, keep listing and organizing your store.

Your feedback score also plays a role in how quickly things sell for you.

If you have a few hundred feedback when you open your store, chances are that sales will come to you faster than to the person who opens their store with a feedback score of zero. (Although, that can be done too.)

When I opened my store, I had a feedback score of 60. I started listing everything in my store and putting a few things on auction each week to give my store more exposure. In the old days, stores didn’t have the exposure on eBay that they do now, so putting items on auction was necessary to get more exposure.

It was three weeks until I sold my very first item out of my store. I remember thinking “What if I’m wasting my time and money on this?” but Lizzie was telling me that sales would come and my store would take off soon, and it did.

Along the way, I’ve learned a lot about investing in inventory, keywords, marketing, sales, and more.

One thing that helps your store “take off” is to keep listing new inventory.

Set goals, get the first page of your store filled up, then set a goal for 50 items, then 100, and keep setting goals.

For over a year, I kept my store between 300-400 items thinking that it was a good number of items to have in my inventory. I didn’t want to pay a lot out in fees and I wanted it to be manageable, so I kept it in that range. Then, I decided that I would just list anything I found that would sell on eBay and not pay attention to keeping my store inventory numbers in a certain range.

That’s when my sales took off. Within a few months, I had my inventory up to 550 items……..the sales started rolling in. I started working diligently to fill my store up to the next 100 items. Each time I reach another 100 items in my inventory, I see my sales increase.

The more you have listed, the more links there are to your items and the chances are higher that someone will buy an item from you.

I’ve found that when I don’t list items consistently, I don’t sell consistently.

At first, if I had a slow week of sales, I wasn’t motivated to list. I found that when I didn’t list during the slow times, it took longer for me to get out of the lull in sales, but if I kept listing, I would start selling. Now I focus on listing rather than selling. The more I focus on listings, the more I sell.

So, please don’t open an eBay store with 30 items in your inventory and wonder why you’re not making thousands of dollars a month. Unless your items are high ticket items and you have multiple quantities available. Don’t expect to replace the income from your current job right away.

Selling on eBay is not (and I repeat NOT) a way to get rich quick.

It takes time, effort and money to make money. There’s plenty of money to be made on eBay, but you have to be patient, build your business, and learn what works for you and your family.

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