I guess you could say I was fortunate to have worked in a quasi-sales field (software consulting services) for a long time before "the internet" became a thing. I started selling online via individually owned and managed BBS systems that were part of the FIDOnet network. Yes youngsters, there were networks BEFORE the Internet!
I started out selling the PC parts I no longer wanted/needed so that I could accumulate the funds needed to buy the parts I required/wanted. It was an agreement I made with my wife decades ago and it remains in place today -- what I spend online I must earn online. She just didn't think it thru all the way -- I went into consignment sales, meaning I didn't have to purchase what I was selling, just collect a commission for actually selling it. 🙂 But she still lets me sleep in the house, so all's good!
So I started selling PC parts I already had. Upgraded to selling parts I had purchased, thru suppliers we used at the software shop I worked at then, and then re-investing the profits into more parts to continue the cycle. This lead to my first consignment client -- my employer. Selling the old PCs that we had from client upgrades, as well as the functional parts from PCs that had died.
From there I signed other clients, including a shoe distributor with a huge distribution center here in Memphis that had an overstock problem. They bought in train car quantities, sold in retail store stock quantities, and occasionally that meant they had odds-n-ends. Some the sold thru their affiliate program, others came to me or were donated to local charities via a citywide organization. That singular client put me in the $250K/yr range of sales. But all good things must come to an end, and the 2008 Recession had my consignment clients canceling their contracts and retrieving their inventory -- they wanted to prioritize keeping their employees busy, and I understood that. Didn't like it, but I understood it.
Today I'm back to casual/hobby selling. I have personal collections built over 60-some years of collecting, and I have started a small recycling business doing what I did originally -- I remove old PC equipment from corporations and companies that no longer want/need it and recovering whatever still works and still has value. It's a hobby/side-gig I can due long into retirement, even if it means drafting a grandson or two. 🙂
Thru this all, I worked at my own pace, understanding that each change of product line would me a 2-3 month cross-over before the new products started selling the way I knew they could. I never risked my home or my family's comfort, altho there was a period of separation when I lost sight of the difference between being married to my wife and married to my work. Once that was corrected and each component put in it's proper place (having the business close didn't actually hurt that process), I was able to pivot into managing the online sales for a local business. Doing what I'd always been doing, but getting a paycheck instead of a Schedule C form on my income taxes.
My best recommendations?
- Know your numbers - because you make your profits when you purchase, you collect them when you sell. If you purchase poorly, you'll profit poorly.
- Know what you sell - this is especially important when starting out because it makes purchasing easier and more profitable. I sold PC parts because I'd been working with PCs for years, basically since grade school actually, and knew what what a deal and what was a GREAT deal.
- Don't Bet The Rent - don't invest more than you can afford to lose, and try to keep your family funds out of your business. Tough starting out, but use it as a motivation to learn your numbers better, to learn your new craft better.
- And set realistic goals -- expecting to net $100K in profits your first year is probably not a realistic goal. Expecting to make a few mistakes and ending your first year still in the black is likely better. That first year can be rough, and there's so much more to learn today than when I first started. But there's also so much more that is better -- no waiting on checks to clear, no worries about bad checks or fake money orders, less issues with claims of non-delivery (better tracking) and access to much larger markets.
Take notes. Ask questions. Take a minute to think it thru. It's a marathon folks, not a sprint. Pace yourself and you'll likely be fine. No guarantees, but my experiences, and those of folks I've personally helped over the years, indicate these are all good things to keep in mind.
-Bob.
@darsdandydeals wrote:What a lovely, motivational post! You make a great mentor!
Thank you! But it's really just repetition -- do/say anything often enough and it begins to feel/sound better and better. 🙂 When I started out in I.T., desktop computers did not yet exist (close, but not quite), and programmers were usually a small clique of nerds. And what we did best, besides making computers bow to our every whim, was share what we knew with each other.
I've always appreciated that and I like to think I'm paying back the support I received when I started selling, when I started using SixBit, when I started/restarted my first Store, when I started working with local folks who were interested either in hiring me do sell on consignment for them or to teach them how to sell online for themselves.
So I share what I've learned with folks who are truly interested in doing something similar. My kids are constantly telling me "Dad, you're building a clock again - I just need to know the time!". To which I reply "If you had been paying attention last time, you would know what to do this time and would not have had to ask me what time it was!" 🙂 I have some very smart kids, all successful in their chosen professions but not as successful in their personal relationships. I guess you really can't have it all.....
One suggestion that I used and offer up when needed, is to create your own set of help files. Do this with a 3-ring binder and loose-leaf paper. When you have a question, write it out at the top of a clean page. Now research the question, taking notes on different recommendations for answering the question, and then see which one fits best and go with that, marking it as your chosen resolution.
In the process, you'll have more questions. Start more pages. Soon you'll need section dividers so you can break things out by category and organize your research (questions & answers) for faster lookup. If something changes such that a question is no longer relevant, remove that page. Either archive it in a different binder or trash it - that's up to you. Just be sure to add a page for whatever took it's place, or the new way to do that old thing. Keep your book current - you'll eventually look at it less and less, but it never hurts to have a reference available.
Keep reading, keep learning, keep trying. If you enjoy it, it's worth getting better at it. If you find you don't enjoy it - find something else of interest. Why spend time and effort doing something you don't enjoy when there is probably so much more you would enjoy?
-Bob.
