This is a guest post by Josh Haynam. After starting several companies and selling them off, Josh Haynam dedicated himself to helping others become their own bosses. His site www.entrepreneur-stories.com features stories from highly successful entrepreneurs and is designed to bridge the gap between having the desire to start a company and actually a business. 


While eBay may not be what it was five years ago, it's still an e-commerce hub that moves billions of dollars worth of products every year. Because of this, there are thousands of guides to “get rich on eBay.” Most of these are full of fluff and won't help you actually make any money, but don't worry, it is possible to make on eBay.

The easiest, least costly, and most effective way is to buy and resell. Simply find items that are under-priced, buy them, fix them up, and resell – easy. Hold on a minute, if it was that easy everyone would do it, you've got to have a plan to make this work. There are three pieces of strategy to this approach that have got to be executed carefully if you want to succeed – what to sell, how to sell it, and how you'll make money.




1. Discovering What to Sell:

Pick something you like: If you end up selling a particular item or group of items, you better love those things. I sold laptops on eBay for years and every time a new shipment came in it was like a mini-Christmas as I unwrapped and played with each new purchase. To make serious money you'll need to sell hundreds or even thousands of your product, and if you don't love it you're in for a tough ride.

Solve A Problem: Believe it or not, not everyone out there enjoys selling on eBay. If you can align yourself with people like that and buy their items, you'll make money by reselling them.

In this way you are not only helping out a person who is scared away by eBay, but your also getting a killer margin. When I sold laptops I found that there are hundreds of people who simply don't have time to sell their own used computers, I stepped in to help out – and make a profit.

Know Your Product...Very Well: This is the most important item on this list. If you don't know the ins and outs of what you're selling, you'll fail. Often times there are only seconds to decide whether or not to buy a piece and if you don't know what to pay for it, money will be lost. Know what to pay for items and you'll get great margins.


2. Selling It: 

Be Honest: One of the biggest problems on eBay is an over-abundance of spam postings. Buyers are wary of this and aren't persuaded by sensationalist postings. Be clear, descriptive, and straightforward when listing your sales and people will come to recognize you as a great seller. Honesty is the best way to build a great reputation, and a great reputation is the best way to sell a lot of products.

Serve Your Customers: Set yourself apart from every other seller by offering exceptional customer service. The bar for customer service has been set very low on the internet, rise above that bar and you'll find customers coming back and referring you to friends.


Have Fun: Selling online isn't easy; it won't make you a millionaire overnight, and can be discouraging at times. However, if you can manage to have fun while working and making money, your customers will recognize this in their interactions with you. This is a simple way to set yourself apart from the crowd and be a source of excellence, which translates into more sales and more dollars in your bank account.


3. Making Money:

Think long-term: Don't fall into the trap of squeezing every dollar out of each sale by stretching the boundaries of what you can charge your buyers. Selling online is a long-term game and sales will grow if you are consistently building up relationships and selling great products. When I was selling I would always respond to each customer's inquiries and complaints and even take a lower price (so long as I was still profiting) to please my faithful clients. Customers come back around sooner than you'd think, and sales will climb if you have a long-term perspective.

Have goals: A recent study showed that out of last year's Harvard graduating class, the 10% who wrote down their goals for the following year made more money than the 90% combined. Set up short term as well as long term sales goals for yourself and stick to them. Keep on track, and watch your money continually grow.


In Conclusion:

Ebay is still a strong market that provides vast opportunity for making money. However, without a great strategy and cunning approach to buying and selling it's nearly impossible to squeeze any money out of it. To succeed you must know what to sell, how to sell it, and how to make money selling it. Be honest, have fun, spend time working with your products, and care about your customers and you'll watch the dollars roll in. Have you sold as a business on eBay? Please share your experience in the comments below!