A Crash Course In Entrepreneurship

Looking for a business to start up? Are you familiar and efficient with selling on eBay? Then launch a consignment business! There are all kinds of franchises out there that handle just eBay sales such as iSold It and others. However, there are large start up costs and investments needed to launch your own franchise; so why not go at it on your own? It’s the type of business that you can start on the side, growing on the weekends, and run from your home while also working a full time job.

What Do I Need To Launch an eBay Drop Off Business?

• Space – you’re obviously going to need extra space to store any items that you are selling as well as to use for your other operations like photography, packaging, etc.
• A good digital camera – You’ll be handling all the photography for the auction listings, so a good camera that will take nice pictures and not be all blurry is a must.
• White Box/Light Box for Photos – A white box or light box is a lighting set up and background that will allow you to take great pictures even with a decent camera to help you remove any background issues or reduce the risk of a flash on the object. Here’s a simple design you can make yourself with some foam board, desk lamps, a piece of poster board, and some tape.
  
• Packing and Shipping Materials – If you already have a camera that you can use, then these supplies will probably be your biggest start up expense. You can drop your expense on materials by reusing any boxes you have around the house, old newspapers to pack your items with, and other similar materials (left over packing peanuts, etc).
• An eBay Account and eBay Store – Well, first, you need to be registered on the website, duh! Then you’ll want to sign up for an actual eBay store. This will give you the opportunity to customize the look and feel of your auctions and storefront much more than just as a regular seller. This can be a great advantage too if you start selling other items that you have an inventory of – you can then list them as store items and not have to worry about watching the auctions and relisting them weekly.

And the most important thing you need when starting an eBay business – knowledge and the ability to research. If you’re going to make any money when selling other peoples stuff on eBay, you need to be able to extensively search the site and find what similar items have sold for, determine what you can expect to get on your auction, and see what type of description will help sell the item.

Speaking of descriptions, you don’t necessarily need to be an antique appraiser or aficionado in any specific area in order to sell an item. You really just need to be able to effectively research the item by brand, model, or any other features. This will help you to write the best description that you can.

Another point would be to use the actual owner of the item as a resource for your auction listing. Since it is their item, they probably know things about it that would take you a while to determine. Have them help you with the description for the auction. With an accurate description coming from the owner verses a guess coming from you, you have a better chance of selling your item and achieving high bids!

So, now, how do you make money off of selling for someone else?

Simple. You charge a fee – this could be a flat fee or a percentage based off of the auction value. You’ll find in your research of similar businesses, that most charge a percentage of the total auction value. Meaning if something sells for $100 and they charge a 20% fee, then you make $20 for that item. You’ll also find that many of the franchise/”big box” businesses will charge around 35%-50%. So there is a great opportunity to take less of a percentage but possibly attract more business. It all just depends on the approach you want to take.

How do I advertise my newly launched business?

Just like you’d advertise any other business!

• Word of mouth will be your best marketing tactic. Tell your family, friends, neighbors, and anyone that you come across about your new venture and ask them to keep you in mind if they want to sell anything. You could even offer a discounted fee
• A professionally designed and informative website will be your second best asset in this business. Just by having your website optimized for search engines and out there with content, you can start to bring in some search traffic. This is how I’ve picked up 95% of my eBay selling service clients. They’ve simply searched Google for our county or city name and then put “ebay” or “ebay service” at the end of the search phrase to come across my website. Having a domain name with your location (county, city, or state) in the URL is extremely beneficial.
• Yard Signs are great because they are inexpensive and easy to set up anywhere you can. If you go the route of yard signs, be sure to include your website address or phone number, along with what your business does printed on the sign. You may also want to check with your local laws regulating yard signs during the weekdays and on weekengs. For example, in my area, they are not allowed to be out during the week along the roads and only from 6 PM Friday night to 6 AM Monday morning, giving you just the weekend. This covers those ‘open house’ signs and realtor signs, as well as any other advertising yard signs in medians, along roads, etc.

I’ve shared some great tips with you on starting up your ebay drop off service business, so now I hope you will go out and do it! Set up your website, get your equipment, and start earning money from ebay like so many others do!