Getting back to selling online.

I couldn't stay away for long, it was just a matter of time before I started to sell again online.

I logged back into eBay and Amazon and I listed one or two things.  The only way I was able to do it without a risk was to use the auction feature on eBay, there is no fee for this, but you have to sit back and wait for bids.  Ive listed the same item over and over during the past month without a bite.  It kinda sucks but I am not so sure I would have sold them if I had an eBay store anyway.  What really sucks is when you get just a single bid and sell an item that retails for $100 for a mere $10!  Ugh so frustrating!  I am not sure if the fees are any different if you have a store, but between eBay and PayPal I can pay up to 15% in fees alone. It just does not seem to make sense but something is better than nothing right?

With Amazon it was easy to, the listings already existed within my account but without a store I now have to pay 99 cents per item plus the fees they already charge when the item sells.  It only makes sense to purchase a store account when you sell more them 40 items within a month, otherwise why waste the money?  Because of the fee it makes no sense to sell anything less than $2 because then you are really not making any money since it all goes to fees.  Furthermore you dealing with other sellers that are offering FBA and have rank higher than you.  Its a struggle, I think I have sold one item a week lol.  I think the worst part is when Amazon locks you out of a category because you didn't fit the requirements.  Ugh, one year I had met all but one of the requirements and it totally killed my business. I had two cancelled orders and I shot down my sales numbers, TWO!  It was so wrong to just stop allowing me to sell in any category.  The orders were cancelled because they were personalized items and well I can't ship out an order without the personalization and well the buyer never told me what they wanted, after 25 days I cancelled the orders.  Selling personalized items on Amazon is not a good idea.

Ive thought of starting all over and just go ahead open a fresh new website, have my own brand.  Thats even more scary.  Why?  Why would you shop with an unknown seller? How much would have to spend to get you to my site, Marketing?  The monthly fee you have to consider, the credit card processing you have to apply for, maintaining inventory, it just another nightmare and well it feels way to hard to even consider.

But... I found a site that says I can list a store for FREE!  Yea I am skeptical too but I think I am going to give it a whirl and see what happens.

Wish me luck.

I am jealous.

Yes I am admitting it. To myself and to all the readers.  Of what?

Well you would need to go back and read my posts about my 'friends',  the ones that I taught everything I knew about selling online, the ones that came back into my life after leaving for two years and I showed them once again how to sell on another platform.

You see it was our idea to go into business together,  sell things and build an empire.  And we were kinda of on our way, I did all the online stuff and my friends did the buying.  We didn't agree in everything that she was picking to sell so I started getting my own things and selling them in my online store. When all that craziness went down between us I was by myself in the endeavor.  I didn't have my own funding so I relied on credit cards and well I wasn't that good at planning and budgeting. Hence my demise.

My friends left on their own and managed to build a business all on their own, with what I taught them, and surpass me in every way you can imagine.  When they came back into my life I taught her more stuff and once again they surpassed me.

I kept thinking what the hell did I do wrong?  How are they doing so much better than I?  Well its all irrelevant now since I closed but I still find myself looking at their online stores and I imagine how great they are doing, how they are working daily and processing orders.  Its not even about the money, its just the accomplishments I see with them and everything I taught. I see how I disappointed everyone with my failed attempts at operating a business, how I couldn't give up and pulled everyone down with me. Now I have nothing at all.  I want to start over but I just don't know how and I believe fear is taking over.

So I admit I am jealous of their success in their endeavor.

Kinda quit my online business

I had to shut down my online businesses.

I was upset of course but in doing it there were things that made sense.  Honestly I was not making enough online, not that I was making enough in the physical store I had in NY. It was poor planning on my part that got me into trouble. Basically I was barely making enough to pay my bills off each month, which meant no profit.  Yea they say the first few years the owner hardly makes a profit but this was a bit extreme.

What had happened took a few years to develop.  When I started out I had used personal credit cards to purchase things, unfortunately companies will only work with credit cards so what choice did I have. What I should have had was starting capital. Start with a few hundred to purchase things and with the sales from that then you buy more. I used credit,  I started out with one card, Id make a purchase and then pay off the credit card bill over a few months. Of course the time it took to pay these items off depended on sales.  Sales in the beginning were dismal.  Then I got my hands on another credit card.

More and more purchases were being made, not the best decisions.  I had too many items that just did not sell and I took a huge hit in selling them.  While I had an eBay store I had to pay for each listing each month so it costs money just sitting there for months with no sale in sight.  Don't forget monthly store fees.  When I started selling on Amazon they had more tricky requirements, I really couldn't sell the same type of things so here came the third credit card to purchase yet MORE products. Now Amazon feels more cut throat, if you don't have the buy box chances are you didn't have a sale.  Unless you created your own listings with no one else selling that particular item, again low chance of having a sale.  Amazon is huge but when you have multiple people in the same listing selling the same thing, chances of the buyer selecting you are quite slim.  When I did have the buy box my item would always sell out, it was amazing.

It took some time but finally I had consistent sales! Yay!  But I also had a ton of bills to pay. So there went my profit.  Eventually I got an 'office space' so now I also had rent, internet and phone bills to pay.  Thinking about it now I should have waited before moving out of my house, made sure my sales was enough to sustain an office. No,  I was too impatient.

Eventually I moved twice more into larger and larger spaces to accommodate my growing inventory. By the time I got to the last place my rent and expenses were well over a thousand bucks a month.  I was able to get a loan and paid off my credit cards, but now I had a loan payment to contend with.  I had a moment of breathing room, or so I thought.  I got into a pinch, I had NO sales in my new store front.  So I went back and concentrated on my online sales.  Online sales were amazing but once again I started using the credit cards to buy stuff!  What was wrong with me?  There was only ONE month in the year and a half I was there that was close to 1K in sales.  Yea imagine that, I couldn't pay rent for how many months? I had to wait for Amazon deposits and eBay sales to clear to make payments. It was a nightmare.  I should have closed up shop and returned home.

I used one of the places that give you an advance based on sales! Oh what a mistake that was.  I was able to borrow at lot cause my sales were amazing but remember I had tons of bills to pay.  It was a disaster, they would continue to take money out of my paypal account and eventually started taking money directly out of my checking account.  It was killing me! But my stubbornness kept me going, I kept a brave face and never told anyone about my issues. Not even my husband, big mistake!

It all caught up with me. Over the past few years I continued to borrow money for credit cards, loans and even one of those places that advance you money based on sales.  I was in debt up to my eye balls with no end in sight.  When we moved across the country I lost half my inventory and just didn't have the sales to keep up payments. I tried my best to be strong and pull thru it but eventually I had to face the music.  It was eating me up inside and well it was a problem I had to take care of.  My husband noticed I had to keep buying things to make sales, it didn't make any sense.  We had that heart to heart we should have a while ago.

I shut down, everything... never renewed my permits, licensees or online stores.  I took a hit on my store, eBay charged me an early closure fee about $50. On Amazon I was just able to close it. Ive tried to sell off my inventory with no luck.  My business debt was somewhere close to 70K.  It was stupid and crazy.  Im slowing selling online again but its harder, unless I open a 'store' on eBay I can only do free auctions or pay a fee for the other type of sale. Ive got sales on Amazon again but the fees are extreme, I have to pay 99 cents per item sold.  Unless it becomes worth it to open a 'store' again I have to pay that fee per item.  Its expensive to have online stores. I thought about selling on my own website, I mean I used to pay over $700 in fees alone between Amazon, eBay and Paypal, why not?  It just doesn't seem worth it to try. I think Id rather try and sell at a flea market.

I haven't purchased any new products in over six months, all the items I have still are 'old' and well Id be lucky if I get cost out of it. Im stuck with it.  I am an entrepreneur at heart and one day Ill open a store again but one thing for sure I would never use credit again.

Now I gotta get a real job.