Make Your eBay Store a Family Affair
If you’ve been selling on eBay for a little while, you know how much work goes into the business. That’s what it is, after all — a business — and you deal with many of the issues that all businesses ultimately face, albeit on a smaller scale: purchasing, inventory, pricing, shipping, customer relations, administration. Once you start selling a substantial amount of items and have established an actual eBay store, you might want to think about opening up a human resources department, too. In other words, bring in the kids.
Depending on the volume of eBay sales you have, you may already have actual employees on staff, but if you’re just starting out as an eBay seller or are experiencing moderate growth but don’t yet have the inclination and/or funds to hire someone, start looking at the home first when you need help. Here are some responsibilities you can easily delegate to your children or spouse when it comes to selling on eBay:
Photography: Do you have a budding Ansel Adams in your family? Ask them to take photographs of the items you’ll be listing on eBay. Let them experiment with different angles, backgrounds and lighting. Encourage them to study how successful eBay sellers compose their winning photographs and learn from the pros. Remind them not to use their cell phone cameras when taking photos, regardless of how many megapixels it has!
Shipping & Handling: For many eBay sellers, this is the most tedious part of the job, but even small children can really get into the activity. Who wouldn’t like to play with packing paper and bubble wrap? Have them pack non-fragile items and stick mailing labels on the packages. Don’t allow younger kids to play with plastic bags or tape guns, but otherwise they’ll be happy to hold down the folds of cardboard boxes while you tape them up. Ask your spouse or teenage children to do post office runs for you on their way to or from work and school.
Source inventory: Who loves shopping m
ore than teenagers? They’re also among the most trend-savvy folks out there, so why not promote your beloved mall-haunting offspring to your eBay store’s official Senior Buyers ? Ask them to come with you on yard/estate/garage sale haunts and discount store expeditions. You can learn just what trends are hot now and what will be hot a few months from now, and they can learn how to price inventory accordingly so that the family business makes a profit on eBay.
Inventory consignment: Want to consign your items instead of selling them on eBay yourself? Have your young “shipping staff” or spouse take them to any of Easysale’s five drop-off locations throughout the Metroplex. Or better yet, have them call us at 817-640-EASY (3279) or email us to schedule a free pickup. Just like our name promises, the process is fast and easy.
Involving your entire family in the management of your eBay store allows your children to learn valuable lessons about entrepreneurship, responsibility and money management, all while spending lots of fun, quality time together. As your eBay store grows, you can delegate more advanced responsibilities and might even be able to start paying “salaries and bonuses.” Now there’s an incentive everyone can get behind!
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