Troy and Veronica are a couple that has decided to chuck the normal lifestyle and own their time rather than chase fancy things. Gone is the rat race, the frustrating commute, the office politics, and the boss overlords. They work when they want, how they want, and where they want. Veronica is the frugal mom with loads of style, and Troy is the stubborn number cruncher. They have two wonderful boys in college, a beautiful house in suburban Denver, and a basement full of inventory. Interesting Notes Fifteen years ago, Veronica was a stay at home mom with four-year-old and six-year-old sons. She and her best friend used to go to garage sales on Fridays to look for kids toys and clothes. One day, she ran across an ad for a class on how to sell on eBay. She enrolled and after four weeks of classes, she started selling on eBay part-time. Aside from eBay, she also worked a bunch of part-time jobs throughout the years. In 2012, she responded to an ad in Craigslist for a photographer-lister on eBay. She learned that the owner is running eBay as a full-time business. She learned from the owner the different things to sell on eBay and on how to run an eBay business as a whole. Troy, on the other hand, worked as a controller in an oil and gas company. He was earning a six-figure income, but he had to drive one hour one-way to work. He did not like it much and was not enjoying his life. With his financial background, he started running the numbers of Veronica's own eBay. He figured out what will it takes to run a full-time eBay business such as: 1. how many items do they need to list each week; 2. how many items do they need to sell each week; 3. how much will it cost them in inventory to make eBay a full-time job. As a result, he came up with a conclusion that eBay can be a viable full-time job. They may have less money, but they can have enough to be able to live and enjoy their lives at the same time. It is like a pre-retirement. And so in 2015, they both quit their jobs and do eBay full-time together. Veronica grew up seeing her father going to garage sales and antique stores. She imbibed in her spirit the love of going and finding deals. She never thought that one day she will walk away from her job and go full-time on eBay. Troy never thought that he would leave his corporate job too. He recalls the first suit that he bought to get a full-time corporate accounting job. He bought it at Goodwill for $6 and now 20 years later, he is selling that suit. One of the best things that Troy and Veronica did on their eBay business is hiring a photographer. The photographer takes the photos for their clothing and shoes at his own studio at home. They would drop stuff off to the photographer and pay him per item. For their hard goods, Veronica takes the photos. They ship every day and they do it together. Monday to Thursday is their listing days. Every Friday morning, they hit the garage sales. Their Saturdays are their thrift stores and estate sales route day. Sunday is their day off. On their day off, Veronica gets to cook and get their meals ready for the week. Troy would catch up with the accounting. They also spend time with friends and with their son who lives with them. They adopted a chunking program in running their eBay business. These four chunks are photography, listing, sourcing, and shipping. They group their task per chunk and do it per schedule. Their so-called chunking program keeps them focused on a task at hand. It keeps them on the same mood and mindset all throughout. This way, they get more things done every week and of better quality. For their inventory management, they use a third party listing software called SixBit. They also use the SKU system. They would list all their items with SKU numbers. Another best thing they did this year is getting a warehouse space. Their warehouse has a shelf location with SKU numbers as well. All the hard items that are listed are pre-packaged and are taken over to the warehouse. Veronica puts the weights and the dimensions into the SixBit and eBay listing. So when an item sells, they would print the label in their house, go to their warehouse, slap the label on it, and drop the items in the post office on their way home. They store their clothing and shoe items in their house basement. The shoes are in numbered-shoe racks. The shirts and pants are in legal size file drawers. So, they have a basement full of legal size file drawers. Each drawer has its own numbers. So when an item gets listed on eBay, it has its own unique SKU and drawer number. When something sells, within 60 seconds, they can go down to the basement, pick the items, pack it up and ship it out. It took Troy and Veronica for a while to get where they are at now in their eBay business. They encountered annoyances before, but they were able to fix it and became efficient. One of their goals is for Troy to hire himself out of the listing chunk. He plans to take four to five weeks out next summer to hike the Colorado Trail. So to avoid backlogs in listings, they plan to hire someone who will do it for them. They want that the majority of their jobs is to source items that they can make money at. They intend to keep the two other people employed to take pictures, list, and ship the items. This could help them get a cash engine generated. This way, they could free up more time and then start to venture into other businesses. Advice, Tips, and Tricks To go full-time on eBay, you must first know the capital requirement. How much it is going to cost? What are you going to have to invest in inventory? What are you going to have to invest in the time to get stuff listed? Answering those questions will give you the confidence to do it. Set aside money for the following: 1. Build Up Money - the amount of money that you need to keep buying the inventory you need. If you need to buy 150 items a week and it cost $5 per item, you've got to have that money every week to be able to keep going and listing the items. 2. Nest Egg Money - the amount of money you need to pay for all your personal expenses, allowing you to live while you are making the business up and going. Start with what you can do today. When you run into something that is an annoyance, fix it. Fix it before it becomes a huge problem. We live in an entrepreneurial internet age and if you want to make money, it is out there to make. You don't have to have everything perfect. Start today. Start making that money. You will love the sound of the cha-ching. It tells you that you are at home and you are getting paid for it. Start with that and all the other stuff will come later. Quotes "Being in business for yourself is a little bit of a roller coaster. You will never know what the days can bring." "Even if you are buying and listing, things don't sell in two days. Sometimes, it may take two years for an item to sell." "eBay is a viable, full-time business." "Once you find an annoyance, fix it, and it will be fixed forever." "If you fix a small problem today, it saves you hundreds of hours in the future because you will never have that problem again." Contact Information eBay Store: Vero's Vault Facebook: Vero's Vault Instagram: Vero's Vault email: tsatterf@yahoo.com Sponsors Solutions4Ecommerce Norila Digital Marketing
Troy and Veronica are a couple that has decided to chuck the normal lifestyle and own their time rather than chase fancy things. Gone is the rat race, the frustrating commute, the office politics, and the boss overlords. They work when they want, how they want, and where they want. Veronica is the frugal mom with loads of style, and Troy is the stubborn number cruncher. They have two wonderful boys in college, a beautiful house in suburban Denver, and a basement full of inventory.
Interesting Notes1. how many items do they need to list each week;
2. how many items do they need to sell each week;
3. how much will it cost them in inventory to make eBay a full-time job.
1. Build Up Money - the amount of money that you need to keep buying the inventory you need. If you need to buy 150 items a week and it cost $5 per item, you've got to have that money every week to be able to keep going and listing the items.
2. Nest Egg Money - the amount of money you need to pay for all your personal expenses, allowing you to live while you are making the business up and going.