How to Start My Own Business on eBay

Thursday, May 15, 2014

How to Start My Own Business on eBay

The company eBay Inc. is an American multinational Internet consumer-to-consumer

corporation, headquartered in San Jose,California. It was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995, and became a notable success story of the dot-com bubble; it is now a multi-billion dollar business with operations localized in over thirty countries. The company manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide. In addition to its auction-style selling, the website has since expanded to include "Buy It Now" standard shopping; shopping by UPC, ISBN, or other kind of SKU (via Half.com); online classified advertisements (via Kijiji or eBay Classifieds); online event ticket trading (via StubHub); online money transfers (via PayPal) and other services.

Entrepreneurs looking to start an online retail business may want to give eBay a close look. Many of the aspects of starting an online retail business are made easier by the eBay business model. The eBay website has templates you can follow to create your own storefront; eBay has an audience of millions of potential customers all over the world; and eBay can help mediate customer service issues between buyers and sellers. Develop a plan and learn how to start your own business on eBay.

Instruction:

Step 1

Become familiar with eBay's business rules and schedule of fees. Fees are charged for listing products, paying when products sell and associated with marketing processes, such as including a picture of a product and a bold headline to your eBay listing. Instructional videos from successful eBay sellers are on YouTube that can help you to understand how an eBay business would work.

Step 2

Determine what kind of product you would like to start your eBay business. Spend some time on the eBay site determining how many other people already offer your product, and what pricing they offer. If you feel you can compete with the products you have chosen, or if you feel there is room for another seller of your product on eBay, then proceed with your business. If you find several hundred retailers of the product you are considering, then you will want to find a new product to sell on eBay. You can expand out to other products as your business grows, but you need to start with products that have a chance at selling to get your business off the ground.

Step 3

Register your business with your state business licensing office. Contact your state senator's office to get the contact information for the licensing office. Some wholesalers will require you to be a registered business to do business with them. A business license allows you to open a business bank account and legally pay taxes on your business.

Step 4

Write a business plan for your eBay business that outlines the products you intend to sell, the suppliers you will be using, how much start-up capital you will need, your marketing approach to selling on eBay and projected revenue for the first three years of your company's existence. You will need money to start your eBay business. If you are unable to supply that money yourself, then you will need to talk to investors and lenders. A business plan will help potential lenders to better understand your eBay business idea and it will also help them to see how you intend to make your business stand out from the thousands of other eBay businesses.

Step 5

Establish your online eBay store front with your company name and logo. Start off with a few auctions of your product with marketing programs, such as extra images and bold headlines to get started. Putting your auctions out into the general auction listing will have your new business come up in new auction searches and start driving traffic to your eBay store.

Tip

Always offer the lowest pricing possible on your store and on your separate auctions. If you try to sell items at below cost to attract buyers, be prepared to always sell that product at a loss. Establish low prices right off the bat and you will start to attract regular customers.

References (4)

Resources (3)

1 comment:

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Easy Tips and Ideas to Start Business

Although anyone can start a business, many people fail because of a bad product or improper research. If you want to start your own business, you can improve your chances for success before you even begin. In order to make your business successful, start strong and make sure that your idea will hold out for the long haul.

Have a Good Product

Ensure that you plan to sell something useful. Although you may think that your product is important or special, that doesn't mean the general public will agree. Ask friends, family and strangers what they think of your product. If they don't seem that interested, ask them why. With their suggestions, you can either improve the product or scrap the idea completely. According to Brad Sugars of Entrepreneur magazine, most small businesses fail because they sold a product that didn't have an adequate market. This also applies to small businesses that provide a service. A lawn-care business might be useful for part of the year in a northern state, but it is in-demand year-round in the south. Consider whether people will actually want to use your service and get constructive advice from those not afraid to give their opinion.

Research Local Businesses

Research local companies before starting up your own business. This will not only give you an idea of the amount of competition you will have, but it will also help you price your product or service. If you're looking to start a wedding photography business, you may find during your research that the market is over-saturated in your area. If not over-saturated, you should contact each business and ask them for a price list. Alter your prices so you can stay competitive with the competition in town. Researching similar local businesses will also help you decide where to locate your business location. Try not to start up a store or office close to another business of your type. If your small business is located away from similar business types, this will cause locals to choose you over businesses that are farther away from where they live.

Get Professional Advice

You may know someone who has started their own successful business. Ask him for advice and listen to his stories of how he started his company. You may gain useful advice on the good and bad ways to start a business. Local entrepreneurs can also introduce you to local product providers or advertisers that you may not have met without their help. Accept any advice with open arms, especially if the advice is coming from someone successful in the area.

How to Calculate Business Start Up Costs

Starting a business in no easy endeavor. It takes a great deal of research, perseverance and hard work. While sweat equity will make your small business more successful, you will most likely need real capital to get the business started. Before you start raising capital and/or investing your own funds, the first thing you need to do is determine the total start-up costs.

Step 1

Determine your costs of sales. For most small businesses this means inventory, the cost of raw materials, manufacturing equipment, shipping, packaging, and warehousing. However, not all businesses sell products. In this case, the cost of sales is primarily the direct labor involved in making the sale. For example, to open a small shoe business entails purchasing enough inventory ($10,000) to stock the store.

Step 2

Determine professional fees. Planning your business structure, i.e., limited liability corporation or general partnership, means hiring an attorney. There may also be the need to pay an attorney for help with establishing trademarks, copyrights, and patents. In this scenario, that puts total professional fees at an estimated $20,000.

Step 3

Determine technology costs. Technology can greatly reduce the cost of labor for small business if used effectively. Most small businesses require computers, printers, cell phones, website development, Internet access, software applications, information security, data storage, and outsourced information technology (IT) consulting. If the cost of technology is $10,000 to start, add an additional $5,000 a year for maintenance (hint: maintenance is not included in start-up costs).

Step 4

Determine administrative costs. This varies with business types and may include items such as business insurance, office supplies, product packaging, parking, rent, express shipping, desks, chairs, fax machines, phones, or anything else necessary to operate the business daily. A good estimate for start-up administrative costs would be $5,000 for the first six months.

Step 5

Determine initial sales and marketing costs. Now that you have your product, you need to let folks know about it. Sales and marketing costs generally include marketing materials for presentations, printing stationery, business cards, advertising, trade show events, and public relations. These initial sales and marketing costs can add up to $3,000.

Step 6

Determine the wages and benefits needed to secure a staff. This includes employee salaries, benefits, workers compensation, and payroll taxes. Let's put the cost of wages and benefits estimated at $20,000 for the first three months of business.

Step 7

Add all costs associated with starting the business for a total. Be sure to only include business start-up costs that will be incurred in the first three to six months of operations. For this example, the calculation is: $10,000 + $20,000 + $10,000 + $5,000 + $3,000 + $20,000 = $68,000.

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Thursday, May 15, 2014