business start-up

Whether your home business involves a product or a service, you must look at ways to diversify it. Business diversification is a matter of survival, particularly in the tougher economic times that are predicted for 2008.

            One of the easiest and most flexible ways to diversify is through eBay. You can even start a home-based business entirely focused on eBay. As home business owners tend to be more ‘Net-savvy, eBay revenue can generate quickly. eBay is also compatible with any investment level.

            To help you succeed in an eBay enterprise, here are ten eBay business tricks, taken from my new book, Tricks of the eBay Business Masters. If you currently have an eBay business, apply these techniques to improve it. If just starting an eBay business, map out a plan that follows this advice.

Tricks for Managing Your eBay Business                                      

TRICK #1: Create a Business Plan – and Stick to It. It's easy to stumble into short-term success on eBay, but it's much harder to make it a long-term thing. When writing it, consider why you're in business, what you sell, to whom you want to sell it, how much you sell it for, what you'll have to pay for it, where you'll get it, how many you expect to sell, how much money you expect to make, and how you expect the business to grow.

Tricks for Deciding What to Sell

TRICK#2: Sell What You Know. Why? First, you'll enjoy it more. Second you'll be better at it – when you know a category, you're better able to pick up on trends and know what's really going on. Third, you'll know the lingo. Fourth, it's easier to find inventory because you know who the players are in the industry, and you may even already have your starting inventory in hand.

Tricks for Purchasing and Managing Your Inventory

TRICK #3: Leverage Payment Terms to Improve Your Cash Flow. Cash flow —how much money you have to spend now to pay for your inventory—is a big factor to consider. As your business grows and gains a more legitimate appearance, you'll find that more payment options become available when purchasing from suppliers. Obviously, the larger the payment terms, the better for you. If you can stretch the payment terms long enough, you essentially let your supplier finance your eBay purchases. Net 10 is good, but net 20 and net 30 are better. The longer your terms, the more leverage you have with your funds.

Tricks for Creating More Effective Listings

TRICK #4: Offer the Buy It Now Option. Inpatient buyers see something they want, and they want it now. This is why savvy sellers, when they can, offer the Buy It Now (BIN) option in their eBay auctions. With BIN, you name a fixed price for your item. If a user wants the item immediately, they click the Buy It Now button and pay the fixed BIN price; the auction is automatically closed, and that user is the winning bidder. Using this option is especially popular for commodity products where the price is pretty much dictated up front by the market. You might also want to consider this option around the Christmas holidays when buyers don't always want to wait to see whether they win an item; desperate holiday shoppers will sometimes pay a premium to get something now.

Tricks for Setting Prices and Handling Payments

TRICK #5: Price Below the Breaks. Whatever pricing strategy you embrace, keep in mind how much you're paying for each item you list, because eBay charges a listing or insertion fee based on the starting (or reserve) price of the item. What you don't want to do is spend more than you have to in listing fees. To be smart about how you price your items, you have to know the breaks in eBay's fee structure – and then price your items just below the breaks.

Tricks for Packing and Shipping

TRICK #6: Print Prepaid Postage Labels. One of the biggest time-savers offered by eBay is the capability to print prepaid shipping labels (with prepaid postage). You can do this directly from eBay via PayPal, for both U.S. Postal Service and UPS shipping. When you print prepaid labels on your own printer, you can arrange for your postal carrier or UPS to pick up the packages from your front door or you can drop them off at any shipping location. You can access eBay's label-printing function from your Closed Auction page.

Tricks for Promoting Your eBay Business

TRICK #7: Create an Email Mailing List. Savvy sellers keep good records of all their past eBay auctions and past buyers. Then you can create a list of buyers who want to be contacted when you have similar merchandise for sale. The easiest way to create an email mailing list is through eBay. If you run an eBay Store, eBay offers free email marketing. You can even use eBay's email marketing tools to measure the success of your email newsletters, which makes it easier to fine-tune your promotions in the future. All eBay store owners can send a total of 5,000 free emails a month to subscribers.

Tricks for Running a Successful Trading Assistant Business

TRICK #8: Offer a Pickup Service. If you're running your business out of your home, or if you have a drop-off retail location, your clients can drop off their merchandise at your location. However, you can set yourself apart from your franchise competition by also offering a pickup service. This is a great time-saver for your clients, and justifies any higher fees you may charge. Alternatively, you can charge a separate fee for the pickup service.

Tricks for Cutting Costs – And Increasing Profits

TRICK #9: Purchase Now, Sell Later. Buy merchandise when it's available at a lower price, then hold onto it and offer it for sale at a later date when the prices you back up. Perhaps the best example of this is to purchase items during the off season, and then sell them during the hot season, such as swimwear or winter sporting goods. Also take advantage of sales and promotions, or purchase discontinued products that you know will remain in demand.

Tricks for Expanding Your eBay Business

TRICK #10: Expand Your Merchandise Offerings. Offer more and different products for sale to increase your number of eBay listings. First, make sure that you've completely filled out the offerings in your current product category. Next, consider expanding into related categories. Think of other items that your current customers are likely to purchase; these items are good candidates for expansion. Also, don't rule out selling in a completely different product category. HBM

Tricks of the eBay Business Masters, (Que Publishing 0-7897-3699-3) by eBay guru Michael Miller. Miller is a top eBay seller and has authored a number of eBay and online auction books including Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Auctions, Making a Living from Your eBay Business, Absolute Beginner's Guide to eBay and Tricks of the eBay Masters.