Hi, @b_3_surplus.
First of all, congrats on finally getting some dedicated space to run your business. Have to admit I'm a bit envious. It sounds perfect, even though it may be a bit of a mess right now. 😉
Okay, here's what I would do if I were you...
1) Take a deep breath and clear your head. Your primary objective is to get things under control, and if you believe you can, you will
2) Don't worry about your 24 pallets of stuff right now, there will be time later to deal with that.
3) Even though your workspace is a mess, you need to focus and impose some order on the chaos. Pick a room -though I suggest you pick your office. Get some boxes, pack everything up except the absolute essentials. Label the boxes and stack them say right outside the room in your garage so if you do need to grab something it's right there and you know where.
4) Organize the room you cleared so that it will be an efficient workspace -- the purpose of which is to enable you to process, pack and fulfill orders which needs to be your top priority right now as if you jeopardize your eBay selling account with late fulfillment/unhappy customers , that's going to add to your stress and worry exponentially and you don't need to create that added drama.
5) The next thing you need to do is get your work day under control. Structure your day and stick to a schedule. If you don't have a clock in your workspace -- get one. If you have a cell phone with an alarm, set it and use it. As time goes on and you are able to get a handle on your backlog of tasks, you can modify your schedule accordingly, but in the beginning you are going to have to be disciplined and religious about how you spend your time.
6) Don't know if this is a full- or part-time endeavor for you, but let's say it's full-time and you are committed to spending 8-9 hrs a day on your business and you're willing to get started at 8 am. Initially, here's how I would organize my day:
- 8-11 am Process, pack and fulfill new orders from customers so they can be shipped out today. Make a note of any packing/shipping supplies you're running low on so you can re-order later in the day.
- 11 am -12:30 pm Answer questions/address problems with any orders; process/approve any returns; review current Active listings and any that need to be relisted, etc. (Don't worry about listing anything new right now, you can do that later in the day.)
- 12:30 - 1:30 pm Yes, take a lunch hour; run an errand if you want; go for a walk. If your postal carrier doesn't pick up your shipments from your office, run them over to the PO on your lunch hour. That way all your new orders are completely out of your hair and the day's not even half done. Point is, you need to give yourself some headspace and a feeling of accomplishment or else you're going to burn out.
- 1:30 - 3:30 pm Locate and organize your current listing inventory. Hopefully, you have some shelving in your garage. If not, at least clear a space that's devoted ONLY to inventory currently listed. The idea is to get these items organized so that you can quickly find things and check inventory easily. Get some sturdy boxes or Rubbermaid tubs that you can stack and/or put on the shelves. Put like items together, and as you fill your boxes/tubs, use legal pad to itemize what you've stored in each container and the quantity. These lists can be just hand-written to start with; once you get things under control you can use a more sophisticated spreadsheet system, but don't worry about that now. Tape the list to the front of each box/tub. Don't worry if you aren't able to locate/inventory all 260+ lots you have active right now in one afternoon. Work on this a bit every day and within a week you should have it licked.
- 3:30-5 pm Cross-check your physical inventory against your eBay Actives. Make any revisions in terms of quantity or sold out items now so that you don't get stung with any out-of-stock dings. As you work through each box/tub make a notation in the corner of the sheet of paper attached indicating that those items have been cross-checked against your online listings so you know where you left off.
- 5:00-6:00 pm Check your eBay account and handle any buyer inquiries/questions/problems that may have arisen during the day. Order any packing supplies you may be running low on. Handle any sort of financial tasks/transfers that may be required. Make a list of any issues that need to be dealt with tomorrow and stick it on the front of your computer screen so you'll be reminded first thing tomorrow morning.
- 6:00 pm Call it a night, or at least take a break and have dinner. If you want to return and work some more after dinner, do so, but at least initially, DON'T start opening and getting into your "pallet stock" until you've been able to get everything else organized and dealt with as you're going to need to maintain as much order as possible before creating any more chaos.
Once you get your current inventory under control, you can use those blocks of time allocated above on other tasks. For example, 1:30-3:30 pm every day could be used to *start* digging into your pallets. Resist temptation; do one at a time and perhaps even a partial one. When you dig into them, you should do the following:
- Set aside an area in your garage dedicated to "processing" new inventory -- do NOT mix this new stuff in with your current listing inventory, yet.
- Use the same sort of organizational principles -- box/stack like stuff together, make a written inventory of what you have in terms of type/model of item/etc. and the quantity.
- Once you have unearthed and organized some new inventory, then set aside say 3:30-5 pm every day to start researching it. By researching it, I mean doing your homework in terms of pricing, how best to sell (sell in bundles, stand-alone?) In the beginning, you can just make notations on your inventory sheets that you've attached to the boxes/tubs, but eventually you can put this info all on a spreadsheet if you like.
Use 5-6 pm every day to do the day's "clean up" as noted above. It will help you feel more in control and ensure you can hit the ground running the next day.
Once you start digging into and researching your new inventory, you may want to come back after dinner and work a couple of more hours on writing copy, drafting listings, and taking photos. If you don't have enough room in your garage yet, clear out your reception room and set that up to facilitate photo shoots. Come up with a system and stick to it. Research, write, shoot, then post the listing. Once that's done, then that item moves from your "Inventory Processing Area" to your "Active Listing Inventory." Make sure when it does the outside of the box/bin is properly labeled and inventoried.
Unless you're caught up on things, if it were me, I wouldn't get into tinkering with the computers you need to reformat. That kind of thing can be a tremendous time-suck and while it can be a nice diversion, before you know if you will have spent ALL DAY dinking around with a task like that and getting nothing else done.
In fact, I would suggest when it comes to that sort of task you think about "working smarter, not harder." I'm betting you could hire a local kid who loves and is a whiz at computers for not much money who would be able to figure out what needed to be done to get those computers up and running in a fraction of the time that it would take you.
Anyway, sorry for the length of this post, but I hope at least some of it will be helpful to you. I know what it's like when you are absolutely overwhelmed -- your head is spinning, you wonder what you got yourself into, and what was supposed to be fun and exciting soon becomes the polar opposite of that of you can't get your priorities straight and things under control.
If you want/need more help or advice, feel free to PM me instead of taking up a ton of space in the forum if you like. I'd be happy to help if I can, as I said -- "been there, done that, bought and worn the t-shirt, more than once!" 🙂 Good luck!
