For the Big Time Guys & Gals Do you have employees and if so how did you go about...

epimetheus039 · #23 01-02-2015

I did 200k turnover for the first year, considering I have had a lot of accounts go down, and my items are (5-20$) it was very decent. I managed about 15-20k transactions myself throughout the year and only in the recent months about 4-5k in 1 month. It was tough but 1-2 people for this amount would be enough. I always handle customer support myself, so only the packaging part is paid for. Shipstation is very nice for this matter. Currently I am controlling this process from another country and this works well.

epimetheus039 · #24 01-02-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

Working with competitors can double or 10x your business too. Not to get into many details but I worked directly with my biggest competitor in 2013 in one market January 15th-September 28th. Did 1.2 million dollars EXTRA in gross sales and used non of my own money and did zero servicing. Just focused on transactions.

Anyways, it will most likely be tomorrow morning.

How was it accomplished ? Did you monopolize together to control prices ? Can you explain this please

yankee · #25 01-02-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by epimetheus039

How was it accomplished ? Did you monopolize together to control prices ? Can you explain this please

It is hard and it takes time and it has not always worked out, but when it does, it works out very well.

Never control a price and never own more than 20% of all sales in a nitch category. Ebay will close you and very quickly today.

I will send you a PM later but basically make your competitor money and have them do all the busy work they do everyday anyways.

livelifewild · #26 01-02-2015

Ok I see alot of you mentioning SHIP STATION.
I am going to look into this. As of right now I print all my postage from ebay or paypal directly so I have to log in with a new ip address every time to do the emails the listings and the shipping.

newjerseymax · #27 01-03-2015

You need to be the brains of the operation! The "staff" (family, friends) only need to know basics. How to pack, organize, inventory things like that. Anything else is hush hush....

I do have a right hand man.... Gets paid best by the work he does and the more he does the more he gets paid.... So simple where im going with this.... Sometimes he outsources some of his work, pick-ups or whatnot....

It really just gets too complicated for some people to comprehend.....

Right now my thing is a new westore. Sure I could make it, but my time is worth more in other areas.... That is easily outsourced.....

yankee · #28 01-03-2015

I always hire people smarter than me. I want people with bigger and better idea.

newjerseymax · #29 01-03-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

I always hire people smarter than me. I want people with bigger and better idea.

Can work for some... These days though there are too many smart people with low morals... Its a quick way to get burned.... I mean sure you want a smart IT guy, or smart cashier, etc...

yankee · #30 01-03-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by newjerseymax

Can work for some... These days though there are too many smart people with low morals... Its a quick way to get burned.... I mean sure you want a smart IT guy, or smart cashier, etc...

I want BRILLIANT PEOPLE with BRILLIANT IDEAS! I don't want to have to do anything myself. If I feel like, per say, taking 15 months off and not getting a phone call or txt or even an email, then I want to be able to do it.
If I want to SELL my business, I want my buyers to be able to look at a turnkey cash cow WITHOUT me being a piece of the puzzle so that they can pay me 3-4x NET value etc....

Basically, I don't own jobs anymore and hopefully never will again. If I am needed at all, I don't want anything to do with it. That means hiring and hiring damb good and smart people and paying them far and away more than I could get away with. I want everyone to get a little rich, not just me.

Number one question I ask business owners is this, "Would you give away half your company if you made 5x as much?"

yankee · #31 01-03-2015

Reverse Hire and Leverage Hire are my favorite types of hiring.

rsot · #32 01-03-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

Reverse Hire and Leverage Hire are my favorite types of hiring.

Saw a few commercials for some hiring/recruitment services too - look interesting

yankee · #33 01-04-2015

For the people who have tried to hire and it did not work out and then gave up, I compare hiring to dating. If you dated and it did not work out or was a bad experience, are you never going to date again?

oompaloompa · #34 01-06-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

For the people who have tried to hire and it did not work out and then gave up, I compare hiring to dating. If you dated and it did not work out or was a bad experience, are you never going to date again?

thats what i tell my single friends.....keep going.

HowYaLivin · #35 01-08-2015

I like to keep things simple, I feel employees would just complicate things. I cannot teach anyone to properly do what I do. If you want things done right, you have to do it yourself.

Im certain with employees I could pull seven however, I'm comfortable at six figures. Kudos to those that can handle the stress, it's not for me.

vogeltron · #36 01-09-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by HowYaLivin

I like to keep things simple, I feel employees would just complicate things. I cannot teach anyone to properly do what I do. If you want things done right, you have to do it yourself.

Im certain with employees I could pull seven however, I'm comfortable at six figures. Kudos to those that can handle the stress, it's not for me.

I agree, I do not have employees for good reason. Maybe some close family in certain situations if needed. This is why I have a book of people that I resell items to that I don't have time for myself. They make money, I make money and we are good. I don't pull six figures I make about what the above average American does. If I don't have to go sell my soul every day and hate my job and my life like so many. Then we are golden. It sucks not really being able to take a vacation but the flexibility of my days is super awesome.

Especially with the nature of my AZ/EB business I can't have people who don't know what they are doing. Half of my business is quality control when it comes to products. I sell lots of clothing and over 10 years I have an eye for everything. I could easily be inspector #XXX on your underwear.

It has honestly been so much easier for me for everything I don't want to sell myself to just become middle man. I have helped build several people up from nothing into solid assets over the years.

taerese · #37 01-09-2015

Thanks for referring me to this thread @yankee.

For those people who do not support hiring then you are not speaking volume of your business. How could you handle a business turnover $1M/annum on your own, how could you handle shipping 300 items/wkly on your own.

The next thing on your mind if you shipping in excess of 80 items a week would be hiring some smart pple to help you grow your business.

yankee · #38 01-09-2015

I could not do what I do/did without hiring. Not even 1% without staff.

taerese · #39 01-09-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

Working with competitors can double or 10x your business too. Not to get into many details but I worked directly with my biggest competitor in 2013 in one market January 15th-September 28th. Did 1.2 million dollars EXTRA in gross sales and used non of my own money and did zero servicing. Just focused on transactions.

Anyways, it will most likely be tomorrow morning.

Could you please expantiate on this. Do I need to contact the competitor or just dropship them without informing them? Just wondering how many competitor on ebay would be open to the idea of working with another seller.

Thanks

yankee · #40 01-09-2015

I will write something up in the next few days.

I like position access if possible for contacting. I have a lot of questions from this thread and all are tricky to answer without writing a book. And then you have people on this forum who find everything some of us say(me this week) as so unbelievable it is a lie and impossible, LOL so I share less and less.

taerese · #41 01-09-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

On most of my big accounts, they ship off of paypal notifications and work via Gmail only. They can click on the link to confirm an item etc... but have no access to the accounts.

Isn't this idea risky if that staff member also have an ebay account? I take it they are opening your gmail account from their computer and ebay will automatically link your account and ban on one will most certainly affect your account.

taerese · #42 01-09-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

I will write something up in the next few days.

I like position access if possible for contacting. I have a lot of questions from this thread and all are tricky to answer without writing a book. And then you have people on this forum who find everything some of us say(me this week) as so unbelievable it is a lie and impossible, LOL so I share less and less.

I dont see why this is not possible. I see sense in it.

yankee · #43 01-09-2015

I am an open book. Never mind sharing.
I will send you something soon.

Klemantina · #44 01-10-2015

It's not as hard and complicated as some people describing it here, you just study the market, hunt the profitable stuff, find the right suppliers (preferably buy straight from the manufacturers without any middle man), buy huge inventories to make it cheaper, hire someone smart that can control and hire cheap people. They will do all the messages and send all the goods, the smart guy will make sure everything runs as you want and hopefully the only thing you will do is search more items to increase your profits even more, also would be nice to think about some win-win strategies and discuss them with your competitors(as far as i know its illegal). The only 2 problems are, you need a nice amount of money which most people don't have and to find the right smart reliable guy is not easy either. The more money you got, the easier it becomes. That's just my opinion, i'm not there yet but that's what i think all the big sellers are doing.