Summer Days

I love being self-employed, and I love my lighter schedule.  It gives me a lot more time to get projects done that I’ve been putting off, like scrap booking, and sewing.  It gives me a chance to swim, go for walks and go on road trips

Summer is also a great time  to spend more time on my listings, and get my store ready for the Christmas season.  It really is just right around the corner.

In the summer, I like to set aside one day a week to focus on my listings.  My laptop comes in handy, because we can put on a movie and I can list from the comfort of my reclining couch.

I don’t spend the entire day listing, but several hours.  I do take breaks, but I don’t plan anything else for that day.

Usually it takes me a few hours. I’m able to list everything in my current bin that I have pictures of. Then we go do something special like swimming, get a pedicure, or go to dinner.

Everyone’s schedule is different.

Some people have a hectic summer  but  fall or spring is more laid back.  Utilize the time of year when you don’t have as much going on to focus in on growing your business.  You probably won’t see it grow over night, but if you keep trying to grow your business, over time it will grow.

Promoting Your Online Listings

I am a firm believer in listing.  I don’t let things sitting around that need to be listed while I shop for more!

If it’s not listed, it can’t sell.

You have money tied up in this inventory and it’s not even possible for it to sell because it’s not listed.

I actually love listing especially now that I have my lap top.

I can list while watching a movie or list on the back deck, it’s a lot more fun and convenient.

Even though I still believe that listing is key to making sales, I also think that once in awhile, you have to take some time off from listing and work on promoting what you already have listed.

One thing that I like to do is what I call “cross promote” my items.

That means that I list everything to eBay, and then I import it all to addoway and bonanza.  (There are other sites you can import to as well.)   When I decided to start selling on amazon, the first place I went to for inventory was my eBay inventory.

Instead of spending money on more inventory  just for Amazon, I took items that I have in my eBay store that can be listed on Amazon and listed them.  This way, my items are available to more than one market and I can manage it all at the same time rather than having to maintain separate inventory for each selling venue.

This month, I had 6 eBay items that were “cross promoted” to other venues sell between the three other sites I have my items listed on.  That’s nothing HUGE, but it’s better than nothing, and sometimes items that are having a difficult time selling on eBay will sell on another site.

Another thing I like about the other three sites I’m cross promoting to is the fact that there’s no listing fees, only fees for the item when it sells, which makes having a large inventory on several sites affordable.

I’d love to hear from other sellers who have their items on Addoway and bonanza, and I’d love to hear about other sites you like to have your items on and how they’re doing.

Online Selling Tip of the Week

Stay on top of your shipping.

I try not to spend  much time  listing or shipping on Sundays.  I try to have a day of rest each week, but a few years ago, I started spending a little time on Sunday nights shipping things out so that I don’t have to spend  Monday mornings in my office shipping.

I love it, it doesn’t take a long time to get it done on Sunday nights, and I’m able to start my week off feeling relaxed and getting items listed!

Remember, You’re Only Human

Laundry, dishes, walk the dog, grocery shopping, cook meals, soccer practice, feed the kids, read to the kids, give baths, shop for inventory, take pictures, ship, list, clean the house, wash the car, organize the garage, spring cleaning, church, PTA, the list goes on and on.

I’m sure I forgot something …All of us have busy lives.

I’m not going to pretend for one minute that selling online isn’t a lot of work.  It is.  A lot of work.

We don’t always remember how much work it is. Those of us who have sold online for several years, have built systems into our daily lives. We can’t remember what life was like before setting packages out for the Postman each day.

Some of us work outside the home and sell online, some of us home school our kids and sell online, some of us have babies and sell online.  We’re used to sneaking in some shipping and listing during nap times, after the kids have gone to bed, and planning our routine and errands around yard sales and thrift stores.

I’ve been on a listing spree the last few weeks, listing 50+ items each week between Friday, Saturday and Monday.  On top of running errands and cooking for the week on those days too.

While listing sprees are good, I recommend them a few times a year, not all the time.  You’re not a machine, you’re a human being. A wife, a mom, a co-worker, a husband, a dad, an Aunt, an Uncle, a friend.

You can’t do it all every day, every week.

Take things one small step at a time.

Even while I’m on my listing sprees (and cleaning things out and organizing things for my yardsale.)  I try to not only multi-task  but I also try to take things in small chunks–for example take the pics tonight for what I plan to list tomorrow.

I also try to work on my house before I sit down to list.  For instance, on Monday, I vacuumed the house, spring cleaned the window sills and gave my daughter her piano lesson before I sat down to list. If I sat down to list first, I wouldn’t be  motivated to work on cleaning my house later on in the day.

If you don’t get it all done in a day, don’t beat yourself up, you’re only human.

There are times when I need a nap that I stop what I’m doing and take a nap.  That might mean I don’t list as much that week, it might mean I don’t get the kitchen floor mopped,  it might mean I don’t get to watch a movie.  At the end of the day, what gets done gets done, if it doesn’t get done, it’s really not that big of a deal, it can get done tomorrow.

Spring Cleaning Your Inventory

Each year, I have items in my inventory that make me think……”If that doesn’t sell this Christmas season, I’m getting rid of it.”

Don’t get me wrong, most of my items sell pretty quickly, but there’s always those stragglers that I get tired of looking at.

This time of year, I start looking through my store (online) and in my inventory (what’s physically in the garage) to see what I need to get rid of.

I’m planning a yard sale this spring and am busy sorting through every box I unpack, deciding what stays and what goes. Any  inventory I’m taking out of my store is headed to the yard sale.  If I’m not planning a yard sale, I normally donate the items to a local charity.

When I look through my store for items to remove, I make a list of the items I ended so I can take them out of my inventory bins.  When I’m looking through my inventory bins, I just take out the items I want to remove from my store and put them in my office.  Later, when I’m logged in, I can end those listings and put the items in the yard sale pile

It’s always such a good feeling to me to get my inventory spruced up.  Sometimes I look at what I’m removing from my store and I think to myself……”What was I thinking when I listed that????”

Next Page »