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Starting an Ebay Business ---
An Online Business Model that Works
Copyright © 2003, Bill Platt
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THE REALITIES OF AN INTERNET BUSINESS
Millions of people are still coming online each year, and many
of those people come to the Internet with dreams of making their
financial dreams come true.
The truth is that building a website to sell products and
services is not the easiest way to make a living online. A lot
of specific knowledge or money will be required to be successful
with a standard website.
You must acquire skills --- or pay someone who already
possesses those skills --- in the following areas:
· Graphic design
· Copywriting
· HTML design
· Perl or PHP programming
· Database programming
· Marketing research
· Promotions
When this is understood, most people throw their hands up in
frustration and walk away from their entrepreneurial desires.
Maybe cash is the problem; maybe the desire is just lacking.
If you have reached this point yourself let me offer one piece
of advice...
DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR DREAMS JUST YET
More people than I can count are making a successful living
online, and none of them own their own website or send a single
commercial email to anyone.
How is this possible?
Two words, "Ebay auctions."
EBAY MAKES IT EASY
Ebay covers all of the difficult technical issues. And more
importantly, Ebay already has floods of visitors eager to
purchase your wares.
Ebay has provided everything you need to operate a successful
business online with three exceptions:
1. Products to sell
2. Time to list the products in the Ebay database
3. Cash to acquire the products
CHOOSING THE KINDS OF PRODUCTS
Before choosing your products, you should ask yourself what you
enjoy the most. You may enjoy cats, NASCAR or even antiques.
You should select products consistent with what you enjoy for
two reasons.
First, you bring to your presentation a real appreciation for
the products your are offering.
Secondly, a job you hate is one you will quit. A job you enjoy
doing will be one that you will want to keep forever. If you
are starting your own business, the hope is that you will be
doing it for a very long time.
I personally know people who have generated a nice living on
Ebay selling cat-related items, NASCAR memorabilia and antiques.
FINDING THE ACTUAL PRODUCTS TO SELL
I recommend against diving in and spending thousands of dollars
buying products that you may or may not be able to sell.
A drop-shipper is a middleman who is willing to permit you to
buy an individual product, and then they will put your business
name on the return address of the product package and handle
the actual delivery for you.
By utilizing a drop-shipper, you can speed product delivery to
the client without risking your own cash to keep a product in
inventory.
If you are lost as to how to find a drop-shipper, consider
subscribing to the drop-shippers directory:
http://thePhantomWriters.com/drop_shippers_directory.html
Through this site, you can get all of the information you need
to find drop-shippers from which you can order over 500,000
products from over 1,000 brand names.
LEARNING TO LIST YOUR PRODUCTS AT EBAY
Learning to use Ebay is pretty easy and straightforward. Ebay
has put forward a lot of effort to help people to become
successful. For example, Ebay has an entire area of their site
devoted to the online entrepreneur.
To get an overview of all of the services and tools that Ebay
provides to sellers, you may visit:
http://pages.ebay.com/services/index.html
Ebay also delivers courses and strategies to help you to be
more successful:
http://pages.ebay.com/sellercentral/index.html
THE IMPORTANCE OF CASH FLOW TO YOUR SUCCESS
Ebay provides tools for both buyers and sellers to rate one
another. The speed of delivery is one of the most important
factors that sellers are rated on. By providing quick delivery,
your buyers will give you a good rating --- and more shoppers
will bid on your products.
Ebay recently purchased PayPal.com to help facilitate purchases
for their buyers and sellers, and they have integrated the two
systems together.
Unfortunately, getting the money from your PayPal account to
your personal account generally takes four days. Even with a
merchant account, the time gap is nearly the same. This time gap
expands the turn-around between the transaction and delivery of
the product unless you take action to speed the process.
If you were doing high volume, you would want to minimize the
handling of a transaction to reduce the chance for a foul-up
and to increase your ratings within the Ebay system.
But how can this be accomplished?
MANAGING CASH FLOW
While you could rely upon credit cards to get the job done, it
is not something I would recommend. Paying credit card interest
rates to process your customer's purchase, is an unnecessary
burden.
Instead, put a sum of money into a dedicated bank account with
a debit card attached to it. When you verify a transaction has
been credited to your PayPal account, then use your debit card
to immediately process the order with your drop-shipper.
But, how can you do it this way on a tight budget?
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO THE RESCUE
Let me ask you this. Do you have a 401(k) account?
Experts advise that you not touch your retirement savings for
anything other than retirement income. That is good advice.
Fortunately, it is possible under special circumstances to
acquire loans against your 401(k) accounts.
Beginning in 2002, even the self-employed small business owner
with no employees could open his or her own 401(k), called a
solo-owner 401(k), and borrow from it just as employees with
big companies can.
Weigh this option against the others available to you. It only
makes sense to take out a loan rather than to take a hit in
heavy taxes and penalties for drawing your retirement money
early. Seriously, consider taking advantage of our historically
low interest rates to meet your cash flow needs.
To learn more about creating and borrowing from a solo-owner
401(k), please visit:
http://www.investsafe.com
IN CONCLUSION
It is wise to choose your new business venture based on a model
that has proven itself over the long-term. Ebay has been proving
its concept since 1995; helping thousands of people build a
successful and very profitable business.
The time to act is now. Choose the product line that will give
you the most satisfaction and then get busy. Your success awaits
you.
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Bill Platt owns The Phantom Writers, a company committed to
helping people to establish an Internet presence & promote
their businesses through the use of Free-Reprint Articles and
Press Releases. Articles are distributed to 6,000+ publishers
& webmasters as part of the package. http://thePhantomWriters.com
Do you write your own articles? Let us distribute them for you.
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This article was originally written: June, 2003
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You are not required to show the creative commons license
notice when you reprint this work.
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Article Marketing Tips:
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- Stand out from the crowds. Educate your prospects and they will turn to you for more knowledge. When they turn to you for more, they will visit your website. It is up to your website copy to sell your products, NOT your article. Provide great information and at your website, address how the prospect will benefit from what you are offering. Using these things in conjuction will help your cash register to ring.
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