Outside the Cocoon

What do you do when the numbers are discouraging?

I have been an EBay seller for a couple of years now and I have learned plenty during that time but I am still curious about the full-time sellers.  How do they sell enough to make a full time income?  Who are they?  Do they have employees?  Do they also have a real storefront?  How much more do you have to sell in order to be able to pay employees?  Where do you find enough things to sell?  How do you find enough time to list all the things you buy?  How much should you make on average from each sale?  What margin is the best margin?  When should you mark items down?  When should you write off items?  How much time should it take to list an item?

I imagine the answers to these questions are as unique as each of the individual sellers on EBay and that they are not fixed points on a graph that are attained and than forgotten.  They are questions that by their nature are somewhat organic and change over time.  In my couple of years of selling on EBay I have stumbled across a few of these answers.  But the questions remain.  There is always the possibility of a better answer than the one that I currently have. 

Perhaps that is where one finds the inspiration to continue even in the face of discouraging numbers.  Good items for resale are not always readily available.  Items that we thought would sell quickly take months to move.  Sometimes items sell for much less than we anticipate.  The time and energy required to list items and manage inventory often does not bear out to an impressive hourly wage.

So in answer to my question:  What do I do when the numbers are discouraging?  It seems that there are only two real options.  I can either quit or continue.  And so I will continue trusting that there are things I do not know today but in the future I will know much more.  I will continue to learn to do things better and faster and I will continue to make mistakes.  I will find new answers to my questions.  But the questions will remain.

"We Conquer By Continuing"  George Matheson   

365 Photo Project - Week 4

Theme: Messes in my house

Monday January 18 - My messy window sill 

 
Tuesday January 19 - My messy work / storage room

Wednesday January 20 - More of my messy work / storage room

 

Thursday January 21 - Junk Drawer

Friday January 22 - Night Stand

Saturday January 23 - My desk

Sunday January 24 - I should have been cleaning but instead I was watching football.   
   

Christmas Wrapping Upcycled (Part 2)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I gave gift cards as Christmas gifts this year. I do appreciate their convenience but they have made gift giving into an impulse purchase, in the checkout line, at the supermarket.  Don't get me wrong I have no problem receiving them as gifts but giving them does seem rather lazy. 

To assuage my guilty feelings I tried to wrap my gifts in interesting packages.  Here is my favorite package.  It is made from a old book and some other miscellaneous items.  I do hold a certain reverence toward books and older books in particular so I admit that I forced myself to read the book before tearing it apart.  Don't worry it is not a classic. 

I put some of my favorite quotes in the book with a pocket in the back for the gift card.  Then I dressed it up to look like a doll.

Here is the basic shape.

Some of the finished pages.

 
The finished product.

 
 

365 Photo Project - Week 3

Theme: Chilly Scenes of Winter

 
 Monday January 11 - Dog Walk

 
Tuesday January 12 - Christmas Lights 

Wednesday January 13 - Pony Sculpture

Thursday January 14 - Mountain View

Friday January 15 - Christmas Snow that won't melt!!!!

 Saturday January 16 - Street Scene After Dark

Sunday January 17 - Little Tree (that will hopefully make it through the winter) 

What's in a Theme? My Theme for 2010

A little over a year ago I attended a workshop presented by Barbabra Winter and Alice Barry.  The workshop was titled Compelling Storytelling a Fresh Approach to Marketing.  The three day seminar was full of ideas and activities that have helped to keep me inspired and move me along my entrepreneurial journey. 

One of Barbara Winter's ideas, at this workshop, is the idea of a yearly theme for your business.  It can be anything.  The point is to keep this theme in mind in order to help guide your efforts in your business. 

Last year my theme was "Write" which doesn't seem to have a lot to do with selling items on EBay but I don't want EBay to be my only source of income and therefore writing just felt like the right choice for my theme.  I actually didn't want to give it up in 2010 and for awhile I contemplated keeping it for another year.  Of course I realized that I could keep writing even if it wasn't my theme for the year and so with my new found permission slip my theme for 2010 came to me.  I let it percolate for a couple of days and it still seemed to be the right choice. 

My theme for 2010 - Lazer Focus

This may seem like a strange choice to some but I believe that it will be a good discipline for me.  In this world where "multi tasking" is awarded with accolades of praise I have come to believe it is mostly hooey!!  I prefer to talk to someone who is giving me their full attention.  Doesn't everyone?  And while I can chew gum and walk at the same time I don't think it makes sense to juggle too many things at one time.  In most cases I don't believe that multi tasking is really multi tasking anyway.  It is usually just switching your attention back and forth between two or more things and the more you switch your attention back and forth the harder it is to concentrate and the more time you are wasting.  I believe that often this results is a lower quality of work that also takes longer.  So my intention for 2010 is to keep my focus on what I am doing until that task is completed and then to move on to the next thing and the next and so on.

If you are interested in more information on what Barbabra Winter calls being "Joyfully Jobless"  be sure to check out her webpage.

365 Photo Project - Week 2

I am a day behind in my posting due to some computer issues but I am happy to report that I did take a picture a day last week.

Theme: Things that inspire me to create.

Monday January 4th - Work in Progress 

 
Tuesday January 5th - I have hundreds of these.  Can't figure out what to do with them.  Can't get rid of them. 

Wednesday January 6th - Just loved this little creation I saw in a magazine. 

Thursday January 7th - Paint

Friday January 8th - Things I want to paint.

Saturday Janury 9th - Worn out purse that needs new life.

Sunday January 10th - More junk that I can't throw away!!!     

Christmas Wrapping Upcycled - My upcycling challenge

Well Christmas has come and gone and we are off and running in a whole new year.  I am always a little excited when the new year starts.  I look at my empty day planner and wonder what it will be filled up with by the end of the year.  There is so much possibility and potential.  The beginning of the new year is a time when it just seems obvious to reflect on what matters to us and where we are heading.  Are our interest the same as they where last year?  What has changed?  What has stayed the same?

One of my answers to the question, what has stayed the same, is my interest in continuing to find fun and creative new uses for old junk.  The activity known to many as upcycling.  

My Christmas gifts were so boring this year (gift cards) that I just had to come up with a little pizazz for the wrapping.  They aren't your typical red and green boxes.  In fact they don't really look Christmasy at all.  But,I sure had fun making them and the recipients seemed pleased by the fanciful nature of their "Christmas Boxes."

The first box was made from a cereal box and two pop tart boxes and decorated with cheap thrift store finds, and old picture frame, some marabou feathers, part of a plastic necklace and some other misc "junk."

 

For the second box I used an old cigar box, some cardboard, toilet paper rolls, pieces of egg carton, duct tape and more cheap thrift store finds.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you found some inspiration here.

Happy Wrapping!!!

365 Photo Project - Week 1

I got this idea from a photography / craft book.  It's a simple thing in theory and is suppose to help you learn to take better photographs, as well as catalog something from each day of your life by the end of the year.  The plan, as I stated, is simple.  It requires only that you take one photo per day every day for one year. 

Well I have made it four days so far.  I am sure I will have days when I forget and days when I can't be bothered and days when I think it is a really stupid thing to waste my time on but I have decided to begin the project so only time will tell where it takes me. 

In order to help direct myself I have decided to try using a weekly theme for my photo taking.  Last weeks theme was:

Things that make me smile

 
Friday January 1 - Troll Soap 

Saturday January 2 - My assistant (Ok. He isn't much help but he likes to sit in my lap while I work at the computer.) 

Sunday January 3 - The kooky cactus from my mom.