by Stephanie Weber for Work-at-Home.org
This article is for any stay at home mom who wants to make extra money from home running an eBay store home business. The article will go through the basics of setting up an eBay store to have your own home businessand give some tips for running it while juggling kids and a family life. I will cover the reason why I opened my store; the advantages and disadvantages of a running a store; the start up supplies you will need to purchase; the research needed before you begin and to become successful with your eBay Home Business; where to find items to sell in your eBay store; suggestions for setting up your store by using Auctiva; and shipping processes that will make your life and running your home business much easier.
I opened an eBay store from home so I could make money from home after deciding to stay at home with my now one and a half year old son. My eBay store specializes in books, old toys from the 1980's, dolls, and anything else that comes my way. You don’t necessarily have to have a theme to your store, but it may provide you with repeat customers. It is true that people on the internet will buy anything, and that the one item that you thought would never sell could be your goldmine.
Advantages to owning an eBay Store
Running an eBay store from home can have many advantages. The best part of it is that you are your own boss and you make your own hours working from the comfort of your own home. If your child suddenly becomes ill or flings himself down the stairs and breaks his arm, you don’t have to worry about going to work that day. You can also do much of this work while children are napping, if that applies to your lifestyle. You can also keep your play dates and continue to run your errands as usual. You just may have to insert a few trips to the post office a couple of times a week. (Remember that gas may be a deductible business expense for your home business.)
There are disadvantages to starting any home business as a stay at home mom. An eBay Store does not guarantee sales, or income, and does require some interrupted alone time. The more hours you are able to put into it, the better your reputation will become and the more money you are likely to make. Money doesn’t fall from trees. The reputation of your eBay home business will be the most important thing to being a successful seller and takes time to build.
Starting your eBay Store from Home
As in any small business, there will be a few start up costs. A few small supplies can make your business much easier to run.
First thing is a digital camera. For most stay at home moms this shouldn’t be a problem. You don’t need a fancy camera, but you will need one that can take close up pictures.
Next thing is a shipping scale. You can buy an inexpensive one for around $25 on eBay. This will make your life much easier because you can print your postage online at home. Standing in line at the post office with a cranky/hungry/tired toddler can make your nerves very thin.
You will need shipping supplies, but most of these you can get for free from www.usps.gov. The post office will deliver priority boxes right to your door. If you know what you’re going to sell, try to choose the boxes that will fit those items the best.
Now you want to familiarize yourself with the fees you will be assessed to run the eBay store. You will pay a monthly store fee, and insertion fee to list the item and a final value fee based on how much your item sells for. The basic eBay store costs $15.95 a month, which doesn’t include the insertion fee for each item. The insertion fees range from $.03 to $.10 per item for a thirty day listing. The final value fee is based on a percentage of what the item sold for from 12% for the first $25 to a lower percentage for anything above that. If you accept PayPal as a payment method, you will be charged a 10%-15% fee of the total cost of the item, including the shipping charge.
The last thing that I recommend before you get started is to find a place to store your merchandise where sticky fingers can’t get a hold of it. You never want to put yourself in a situation where you can’t find an item that has sold or the item has been handled by a child and is no longer in the same condition that you stated it was in. This is one of the fastest ways to lose a good reputation on eBay.
The next step before opening your store is familiarizing yourself with eBay’s and PayPal's policies. If you have never sold on eBay before, you will be required to accept PayPal as a payment method, so getting to know their policies is a must. These policies can be found on each of their sites.
For further information on policies go to the Discussion Forums on eBay and browse the topics people are talking about. Just remember as you do this that these discussions only account for about 1% of the sales that happen on the site, and while most of these topics tend to be negative they are informative.
Next thing to do is go to the PayPal site and sign up for a free Premier Account. This will allow you to provide up to $2000 in buyer’s protection and allow you to accept credit card payments. There’s an option for a free debit card that allows you to access your funds immediately. This can be useful since PayPal can take a couple of days to transfer your earnings into your bank account and you won’t have to use your own money to ship your merchandise.
What to sell in your eBay Store
The next things you need are items to sell in your home business/eBay store. For stay at home moms the easiest place to start is in your kid’s closets. Large collections of baby clothes can sell very well on eBay. Sort the clothes by size, age and brand. Don’t list outfits that have stains, holes, or have been worn by more than one child because they aren’t worth it. Make sure you wash the outfits before you list them as a courtesy for your customers.
Are there items in your kid’s closet that still have the tag on them? These can be listed as new but don’t expect to get the original retail price for them. The general rule is the better the brand name; the more you’re going to get.
Finally, do you have a special talent for making things? Can you make diaper cakes, or can you embroider children’s names or characters on a bib? Lots of Moms love these types of things. Just make sure you do your research and see how comparable items are selling and what price they are selling for.
Other items that can sell for a lot of money are scrapbooking items. Good scrapbook templates that coincide with current holidays have gone for large dollar amounts in the past.
The item that has made me a lot of money is some doll clothes that were my mother’s. I didn’t have the heart to sell the dolls, but I did find that their clothes with their original tags on them sold from anywhere to $50-$200 a piece. They paid for my son’s over the top first birthday party.
Setting up your eBay Shop
Now that you have a general idea of what your home business/eBay Store will be selling, it’s time to get ready to set up your shop. First thing you need to do is take pictures of the items you are going to sell. The easiest thing to do is set the item on a blanket or a dark sheet. Make sure the sheet or blanket is clean, especially if you have animals in the house. The picture will be the first thing your customer sees, and some of the biggest turn offs are blurry pictures, body parts, or your kids toys in the background.
Once you have uploaded and edited the pictures to your satisfaction, you are now ready to start setting up your store. This is where spousal babysitting support or a toddler naptime comes in so you can be alone. eBay has a step by step guide to help you name the store, pick out the template, and decide how you would like your listings displayed. The time consuming part is writing the listings.
For a busy stay at home mom I would suggest using Auctiva instead of eBay’s “Sell Your Item,” page to make your listing. Auctiva is an auction building site that uploads your listing to eBay easily. The benefits of Auctiva are that it allows ten pictures in your listing for free; offers the ability to save your unfinished listing in case you are interrupted; allows you to schedule advance listings and offers the ability to use the information from old listings to create new ones. These are handy things that eBay itself either charges you for or does not yet offer.
Making your eBay store as successful as possible
There are a few things you may want to do to make your listing appealing to the buyer. First things are the clear pictures. Next thing is the description. Is the item really in perfect condition, or does it have a few flaws? Once you are done writing your description re-read it for any spelling or grammatical errors. You want to make your listing as professional as possible.
Now it’s time to add the shipping and handling charge to your ad. Your reputation will be based on how much you decide to charge your customers for shipping so be very careful. You certainly won’t want to be one of those sellers that charge a 100% handling charge. It will make you look like you are trying to make extra profit, which is a turn off to your customers. I charge a certain handling fee based on what the item is. I do not charge a handling fee for the books I sell, but I do charge a 20% handling fee for the records I sell because they take more time and materials to package.
You’re Making Money!
Your eBay store is set up, you have auctions running and suddenly you receive an e-mail that an item has sold and the buyer has paid for it.
Now it’s time to print out a shipping label, making sure that the date that is listed on the label is the same date you are actually going to mail the item. If it’s a priority or express item, print the label for the next business day and go to the USPS website and schedule a free pickup. If it’s not a priority or express item or you just want to take it to the post office make sure you take it to one in your same zip code, or the package will probably be returned to you. If the package is being shipped internationally, you are out of luck because you will have to wait in line, screaming toddler or not.
One way to make your customers happy is to try to ship the item within 24 hours of receiving a payment. The customer will get the item quicker and it will help your reputation since the buyer will rate you on your shipping time. My listings state that the item will be shipped within three business days of receiving a cleared payment. 90% of my items are shipped within 24 hours, but this does give me some breathing room in case something comes up or if there is an emergency.
Remember to leave feedback once your item is shipped for your buyer. Hopefully you will receive feedback in return, which will help build your reputation as a good eBay seller.
The most important thing for me in running a successful home business eBay store is that I enjoy doing it. It doesn’t take time away from my son and I enjoy interacting with people around the world. The suggestions I have mentioned above are the very basics of starting a store, and hopefully they can help any stay at home mom out there earn extra money from home, maybe to buy all 50 kids a bouncy ball for your son’s first birthday party.
Stephanie Weber is a stay at home mom for one very active toddler, an aspiring writer and owner of the Ebay store, Steffie’s Closet. You may contact her at msteffie22@gmail.com or visit her store at http://stores.ebay.com/Steffies-Closet
Start selling online today! Open a storefront on eBay.
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