How to Start an eBay Business
By Aron Hsiao, About.com Guide
Start Your Business
You already know how to sell, but there's much more to starting an online selling business than just "selling more and earning more." To make this happen, and to operate legally over the long term, you've also got to think and act like a business. Here's what to do.
- Create an About Me Page
- Understand Supply and Demand
- Build Your Feedback
- Set Up an Accounting System (Automatic)
- Set Up an Accounting System (Manual)
Grow Your eBay Business
Getting started is the easy part. Staying solvent and continuing to grow is the hard part, and what separates the "did it for a while, made a little money, found it wasn't worth it" sellers from the "more and more of my income comes from selling" sellers.
- Develop Sourcing Pipelines
- Consider Drop Shippers and Wholesalers
- Subscribe to Selling Manager
- Monitor Your Dashboard
- Maintain Your Seller Performance Rating
- Get Packing Materials in Bulk
- Precalculate Your Fees
- Implement Customer Service Practices
- Understand Your Taxes
- Specialize
- Do Market Research
- Monitor Sales Reports
- Market and Promote
Get Serious
If things start to really hum along, you'll soon find that your biggest struggle is keeping up with all of the things that you have to do to keep things humming along. You'll also start to feel like you want as much marketing, promotion, and customer reach as you can get. Here are some of the many strategies you might deploy in taking your selling to the next level.