Managing eBay & Your Full-time Job

[aking]

I don't think this has been discussed before, or at least I have not seen a thread.

So how do active sellers with multiple accounts manage eBay & your full-time gig? Personally, I love my job but I'm finding it hard to focus when I'm sitting in a meeting and I'm getting sales, payments, item offers, buyer questions, etc.

eBay is beginning to take a lot of my time with cash-flow management, orders, talking to suppliers, researching new products, packaging and shipping, etc.

I travel 4-5 times a month for my current job which makes things even harder. I usually take my laptop and label printer with me and print labels in the hotel room in the evenings.

I DO NOT want eBay toeffect my job performance but I'm afraid it will if things continue to grow each month with my eBay business.

Not to mention I have a wife, 2 kids, mortgage and everything else. I do not want to neglect my family to do eBay business, but it seems I'm constantly working.

How do others manage?

[SilentHill]

Man you got alot going on. I feel the same way without a JOB, only ebay. I hope your wife can understand that you have to provide for your family.

Inkfrog has made my life alot easier, was able to cut some hours there.
I've read in a thread about SHIPSTATION. ( Never Tried it) Might help.


take a day off in the week for you and your family to spend some time together

or try to meet your salary of your current job and ditch it. I realized I spend way more time with the kids and wife this way.

[yotano211]

If your ebay sales are increasing and taking up more time it might be time to decide which one is more important and makes you more happy. Maybe you could quit your real job. I made that decision some years ago. I was in the same boat you are in. In the end I decided on ebay full time.

At first it was weird, staying at home more often, not driving into work or dealing with traffic in the morning. Having much less social interactions throughout the day. For the 1st year I took a minor pay cut since I lost a normal paycheck but in the 2nd year I started to make up for the loss and make some more. My stress levels went down and I even was able to loss some weight, dont know how, maybe because I cook more from home.

You might need to sit down with the wife and talk this out. If you decide on quitting you will have more time to increase your ebay business. And maybe your wife and help in the business too.

[empirestate]

Go where your passion is.. Obviously you are getting positive validation that your business is working great. Why not devote 100% of your time to it?

[bjammin]

There is no way I could handle a full time job while selling on ebay and selling accounts. This alone is like 2 full time jobs.

[ilcarletto]

I have a full time job and use eBay for extra money only.

I had to mark a line that shall not be crossed.

Having more money is good and fun but if this mean stress and no sleep at night, well is no more fun anymore.

I do sell on eBay just when I feel to and for the extra money I need.

It depends on the season and the time of the year.

I don't like to be "clamped" to it. I like to work harder for Chrismas and do good sales. Slow down the following months. Then, if the market is good, start again, full throttle, for a couple of weeks. Managing my spare time, my family and my full time job.

My Italian roots also want me to rest and do nothing for a few days... enjoy the sun and the good season coming

[epimetheus039]

Ebay is my full-time job and has been for 1.5 years while I have been travelling and living in different countries. My plans lie well beyond that though and I am doing everything right now to create website and expand it. That turned out to be my passion

[rsot]

I work full time - I run a consultation side business that eats up some evenings and weekends - eB is literally a hobby for me that I use to keep my skills alive....I want to keep eb/az as a viable backup option that I can flare up at any time....

[Haidukken]

I did handle it when I started out but after a while I realised I earn more if I' focus 100% my time on eBay and I don't really want to work for someone else anyway, so why not have my own businesses and focus on them, whilst making it rain.
It was really easi decision for me.

[Geegee83]

I work probably a good 70hrs a week, it's stressful. I did this whilst at Uni and still managed to get a 1:1. Not a stealth boast, but just to show I understand where you are coming from, and maintaining standards when at your limit is hard.

The only thing that has worked for me is to ditch products which take too much time, and focus on streamlining things. It's hard to give up the security of your full time job, especially with the horror stories on here.

It all depends how much you want it I suppose? If it's too busy, up your prices, then you will get more profit per sale, but less sales to consume your time.

I don't have kids though, so I can't help with that part.

[xShevaa7x]

Originally Posted by Geegee83

I work probably a good 70hrs a week, it's stressful. I did this whilst at Uni and still managed to get a 1:1. Not a stealth boast, but just to show I understand where you are coming from, and maintaining standards when at your limit is hard.

The only thing that has worked for me is to ditch products which take too much time, and focus on streamlining things. It's hard to give up the security of your full time job, especially with the horror stories on here.

It all depends how much you want it I suppose? If it's too busy, up your prices, then you will get more profit per sale, but less sales to consume your time.

I don't have kids though, so I can't help with that part.

I agree in terms of the products that take up too much time. If it's getting too much you need to min-max, which is a term used in video games, but is very much applicable in everyday life. Look at your sales, and work out which products give you the best profit/time invested. Keep those, and if possible, scrap the ones that take a lot of time.

Putting your prices is another suggestion that can be useful. Your sales will dip, but give it a week or so, but it can mean selling less AND making the same or very similar amount of money.

I find eBay is more about the exposure that your listings get, it's not extremely important that you're the cheapest. On Amazon, unless you have a unique product, prices play an extremely important role. Offering good descriptions and photos does help, but price is definitely more important on Amazon to be the cheapest, or one of the cheapest for visibility.

Very little people on eBay search for the lowest price. Some do, yes, but the majority just click on the first listing they see and buy it if the price is reasonable.

Maybe it would be possible for you to involve your wife with packaging orders at home whilst you're away. That depends on your situation, but it's possible. You could simply arrange your stock with a code and keep it separated at home, then tell your wife the code and address. Perhaps putting all of the addresses into a .txt file with the code above each one would make it simple.

eBay and Amazon combined are my full time job, but I would never recommend you to quit your job, unless of course, multiple platforms are being used to earn money. I had no choice whether I wanted it to be my job, and it's been rough, but i'm slowly getting to a stage where I am happier and have learnt lots on the way. If I had a family depending on me, quitting my job and doing eBay probably wouldn't be a thing unless I was making loads on solid, unbranded products.

The best advice I can give you for selling on eBay if it's taking all of your time is to sell on Amazon instead. Ideally you should sell on Amazon and eBay, but if you're short for time, Amazon can be better. To make a listing on Amazon, or piggy back on an existing one, is quick. If messages are a problem, Amazon will see to that. You will get around 5% of the messages, if that on Amazon, compared to eBay.

[aking]

Originally Posted by Geegee83

I work probably a good 70hrs a week, it's stressful. I did this whilst at Uni and still managed to get a 1:1. Not a stealth boast, but just to show I understand where you are coming from, and maintaining standards when at your limit is hard.

The only thing that has worked for me is to ditch products which take too much time, and focus on streamlining things. It's hard to give up the security of your full time job, especially with the horror stories on here.

It all depends how much you want it I suppose? If it's too busy, up your prices, then you will get more profit per sale, but less sales to consume your time.

I don't have kids though, so I can't help with that part.

Geegee you hit the nail on the head! "The only thing that has worked for me is to ditch products which take too much time, and focus on streamlining things." My products I have now take up way too much of my time preparing to ship. I need to look at streamline.

But I only really do ebay so that I have my own personal "spending" money for things I want. I'm a huge car enthusiast so a lot of my profits go to my cars.

[Geegee83]

As xShevaa7x says, Amazon is a lot simpler in some ways, do you sell just on ebay?

I tried Amazon out a year ago, and after getting to grips with it, it's so much easier than eBay for me, and much more generous delivery estimates too, which for me has been a breath of fresh air.

I think a lot of people in all jobs struggle achieving a work/life balance, I guess it's trial and error and seeing how you can best deal with it. That's why winning the lottery would be nice

[xShevaa7x]

If it's the shipping which takes your time, perhaps you could look into FBA on Amazon. They would do the shipping for you. You may even find that you don't make any less because although they would charge you a fee for FBA, Amazon prices in some categories are generally higher than eBay.

[Haidukken]

I agree with you guys who mentiont he product, it's the key.

I obviously have a bit more time than some people in different situations but even I look at my products very critically because I don't want to dick around with products that sell slow when I know from experience that I have certain stuff that sells within hours, not weeks or days.
I guess it's something that comes with experience and it can also be a seasonal thing that you get used to, once you have done it longer than X amount of time.

For me personally, it's always been about time : productivity: profit ratios and I don't get that invested in product as such What I mean is that when I first started I looked at certain products and I "didn't like it" or "wasn't feeling it" but now I understand that it's not about me or what I think of something- It's literally about money, just money.

I think when I first started, it was almost like a "lets see what this can do for me" approach and "everything was a go"
Now I have 50% of my stock that I categorise as "Solid, 100% sells at a certain price within a week" followed by 25% "Slower sellers, but will sell 100%" and then I always leave 25% of my stock levels as "let's see if I can find something new that would fit the first category"
Slowly the numbers grow, but it still takes the same time to sell them out and get on to bigger and better things.
I'm not into the whole "let's have a ton of **** and hope that something selles"

The 50% of "solid stock" is what funds the 3rd category and that in return keeps feeding the 50% of "solid" that always sells.

[Lost in the Supermarket]

Originally Posted by aking

I don't think this has been discussed before, or at least I have not seen a thread.

So how do active sellers with multiple accounts manage eBay & your full-time gig? Personally, I love my job but I'm finding it hard to focus when I'm sitting in a meeting and I'm getting sales, payments, item offers, buyer questions, etc.

eBay is beginning to take a lot of my time with cash-flow management, orders, talking to suppliers, researching new products, packaging and shipping, etc.

I travel 4-5 times a month for my current job which makes things even harder. I usually take my laptop and label printer with me and print labels in the hotel room in the evenings.

I DO NOT want eBay toeffect my job performance but I'm afraid it will if things continue to grow each month with my eBay business.

Not to mention I have a wife, 2 kids, mortgage and everything else. I do not want to neglect my family to do eBay business, but it seems I'm constantly working.

How do others manage?

Please allow me to put on my Dr. Phil hat for a minute.....

YOU are responsible for what happens and fails to happen. They passive voice you put in your message leads me to believe that you think ebay will take your time. That ebay will hurt your job performance. That ebay is causing you to neglect your family.

No, no, and no. YOU are LETTING ebay take your time. YOU will be underperforming at work. YOU are choosing ebay over your family.

How is that for a cold slap in the face?

Until you take charge of your life, work, and family duties, you will let any and all excuses be the cause.

If you skip junior's ballgame to do your ebay orders, it is not ebay's fault, your customers fault, or anything other that YOUR decision. Decision to process orders with 1-day handling, decision to list too many items, decision to set such a low price that you sell more than you have time to deal with......

Your question was along the lines of...how do you guy's manage it. Me? I manage my ebay. I don't let my ebay manage me.

It is certainly a balancing act. I lead a very active life so its hard to find the time to fit everything in sometimes.

One thing I will not compromise on is sleep. I need 9 hours. Anything less and I am a zombie. I envy those who can do 5/6 hours a night. I could get so much more done if only I slept less.

[xShevaa7x]

Originally Posted by just_smile

It is certainly a balancing act. I lead a very active life so its hard to find the time to fit everything in sometimes.

One thing I will not compromise on is sleep. I need 9 hours. Anything less and I am a zombie. I envy those who can do 5/6 hours a night. I could get so much more done if only I slept less.

You sound similar to me. I cannot function without 9-10 hours at night. I can't even do activities I would usually enjoy if i'm tired.

[SilentHill]

Originally Posted by just_smile

It is certainly a balancing act. I lead a very active life so its hard to find the time to fit everything in sometimes.

One thing I will not compromise on is sleep. I need 9 hours. Anything less and I am a zombie. I envy those who can do 5/6 hours a night. I could get so much more done if only I slept less.

I used to swear up and down that I needed 10-12 hours of sleep. Now since I realized my mission here on earth. 5-6 hours of sleep and I wake up feeling like I've wasted my life! I need to be successful.

Once I am successful then I will sleep.

YouTube (Short URL)

YouTube (Short URL)

[bjammin]

Replace the word donuts with stealth accounts

YouTube

YouTube

[jakobrockz]

Originally Posted by SilentHill

I used to swear up and down that I needed 10-12 hours of sleep. Now since I realized my mission here on earth. 5-6 hours of sleep and I wake up feeling like I've wasted my life! I need to be successful.

Once I am successful then I will sleep.
http://youtu.be/5fsm-QbN9r8

That was a wake up call

[sax4]

I used to have to work much harder with Ebay in London,now that I've moved to a cheap country I work much less and I can pay the rent in a day. I'll would never return to England to live