151: How To Manage Your eBay Income - Liz O'Kane

Liz has been selling on eBay since 2002. She sold part-time, on and off, until she retired from the Air Force at the end of 2016. She has been selling full-time and growing her eBay store ever since. Interesting Notes Liz calls herself a Jack of all Trades when she was working in the Air Force. She sold part-time on eBay, on and off. Two years before she retired, she ramped up her game and was selling well. She followed eBay very close even when she was a part-time seller. She treated eBay like it is a full-time job. She made a goal for herself that if she could hit her target in four months she will retire from her job. She would come home at night and do her eBay works. She would ship on her way in the morning. She would do her listings on the weekend. Her family supported her all throughout. When she retired, she looked for another job. She was confident that she qualifies for the job posts. But looking at the pay, she realized that she can make the salary working in their downstairs for eBay. With that, she decided to make eBay full-time. Liz lives in Colorado, thus her eBay store is Colorado ReWorn. She is doing a lot of upcycling with recycled clothing through the thrift stores. She is also into retail arbitrage. She sells all year round because she sells internationally. She is very fortunate to live in a place where she can do both thrifting and retail arbitrage. She enjoys both and does well in it. She sources depending on her inventory. If her inventory is running low on dresses, she will go straight to the dresses section of a thrift store. If she is getting ready for Spring and Summer, she will go straight to the skirt and sleeveless tops. There are certain things that she holds back when listing. She will not list new boots in May. Her experience taught her that those things do better in October and November. The weirdest thing she ever bought is a kids onesie that had a marijuana leaf on it. She bought it to get it off the shelf. But she thinks that she won't be selling that kind of thing. Liz has over a thousand listings and over 400 items not yet listed. She does her eBay business on their basement. She uses a big bedroom for her office. It is also where she keeps her listed inventory. The guest bedroom is also full of listed inventory. She keeps her unlisted inventory in a storage room. She uses clear bins so she can see the items right through it. She sorts her items by season. Right now, she has two bins of snow boots and bins full of kids winter coats. With the other stuff, she will sort by Men Shirts, Women Shirts or Skirts. She takes pictures of all the same item at one time. Doing so saves her time. It is easy to picture and easy to list. Back when Liz is doing eBay part-time, she called herself a tote-tote seller. That is, she has one tote for unlisted and another one for listed. As she grows, she added her totes. Now, she has a stock room. She has a filing system. She has all her shirts hang by brand. All her shoes are in totes by style underneath the shirts. She knows where everything is. But she admits that as she grows, she needs a better inventory management system. Liz is the type of a seller who likes clean and simple listings. She researches everything she sells. Her listings would tell the buyers exactly what they are getting. If there are tags on, she would put Waterproof or Insulated in the description. She sees negative feedback as what it is. She just has to provide a great service. If a buyer would complain to her, she would answer, "Hey, I'm sorry. How can I take care of it for you? What can I do to make it right?". If the buyer would not respond, then she will take it as it is and moves on. Liz eBay business is growing. She has started in social media. She notices that she has more new customers. She has some repeat customers in some categories. She has a lady buyer who is remodeling her Airbnb. The lady asks Liz links to her new stuff so that she the lady can have the first look. A lot of her prices depend on the competition. Sometimes, she priced based on the norm for the particular item. If every single sold item had free shipping and her cost can absorb it, that is the norm for the item. For the most part, she charges shipping. She does a mix of direct shipping and international shipping. Sometimes, she would ship directly to safe countries like Canada, Australia, UK. She would also ship via eBay's Global Shipping Program (GSP). GSP is a great program that has expanded the shipping options for the sellers. Since she signed up to GSP, she had not encountered any problem with it. Her sales have even increased than when she uses direct shipping only. She is doing international sales between two and seven times in a week. Liz admits that none of her practices are original thoughts. She learned all things from other sellers. She also learns from brand new sellers. She is paying forward now. She is mentoring a new seller she met at her friend's house. This new seller sells cosmetics. She gave the seller her card. She checks in with her mentee every week. One time, her mentee asked her when to up the game because the mentee is selling so well. Liz advised her mentee to build up first. Liz is comfortable where she is now in her eBay business. She does not want to expand beyond her house. Though her husband, her biggest cheerleader, offered to get her a storage, she still wants to work at home. So, for the next two to three years, she will grow her store and refine it. After that, she might have an extra bedroom. One thing she likes about eBay, she does not have to go out where she is comfortable. Advice, Tips, and Tricks You've got to be all in or start looking for another job. If you are on the verge of leaving your corporate job and you say you are going to do it, get ready. She tries to limit selling flawed items. If it is a flawed item that can be repaired, she will state it in the title. She knows and follows the sale date of all the thrift stores and retails in their area. She gets text messages from those. She does her shopping trips around the schedule. Q and A Question: How do you manage your eBay income? Answer: Managing an eBay income would be different for a beginner-seller and a seasoned-seller. From Liz experience, three or four months after leaving her job, a lot of her eBay income went back right into it. Now, at the middle point, her eBay income has the capacity to pay herself every other Friday just like she had a job. Her husband gets paid every other Friday too. She saves the money left over from paying herself and her husband. She would use her savings to give herself an increase in six months time or a Christmas bonus. Quotes "Jobs will always be there!" "I love what I do!" "You take what you need from other sellers experience." "Take pictures like there is no listing and description. Then describe like there are no pictures." "Don't fear the flaw." "Just provide great customer service!" "The great thing about eBay is that it has so many different options for sellers." "Everybody has their own set of processes." - Ron Contact Information eBay Store: Colorado ReWorn Facebook Page: Colorado ReWorn Twitter: Colorado ReWorn Sponsors Solutions4Ecommerce 3DSELLERS eCom Chicago Norila Digital Marketing

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151: How To Manage Your eBay Income - Liz O'Kane is an episode from So You Wanna Sell On eBay by Ali Young & Ron LaBeau.

This episode is 35:55 long.

This episode was published on Jul 24, 2018.

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