Don't be Afraid to Go After Big Ticket Sales Even if The Margins are Slimmer
I started out a few years ago selling hair accessories on ebay. I found a couple products that sold really well, I had a steady supply, and my margins were about 75% after fees, shipping and product cost. My only problem? My average sale was only about $15.
Unless I wanted to get a job and work for somebody else I figured I had to make about 50 sales a day to live comfortably and start a family. That sounds much more simple that it actually was. You see, packaging and filling that many orders every day while doing all the customer service and marketing yourself can be exhausting.
I was only able to reach my 50 sale/day goal if I spent a significant amount of time creating hundreds of graphically awesome listings, and updating them frequently.
I also had to stay on top of messages, answer emails, and deal with any service problems that might arise. At one point I hired some help, but quickly realized I would have to make a ton more sales in order to pay employees and maintain the income level I wanted.
I recall many late nights during my ebay hair accessory phase.
After a while Chinese knockoffs started to chip away at my sales and I started looking for other things to sell on eBay, Amazon, out of my garage or wherever.
I decided to try my hand at furniture. It was my first experience selling fairly expensive products. I found that while my margins were much more slim, I still made a great deal more money on each sale, and the best part was filling a furniture order was not much more time consuming than filling a hair accessory one.
Since that point I have stuck with more expensive, but lower margin opportunities in everything I sell from IM services to home furnishings.
I find that I am making more money, and have more time. My overhead is higher and in some ways so is my level of risk, but both of those can be managed at a comfortable level.
Unless I wanted to get a job and work for somebody else I figured I had to make about 50 sales a day to live comfortably and start a family. That sounds much more simple that it actually was. You see, packaging and filling that many orders every day while doing all the customer service and marketing yourself can be exhausting.
I was only able to reach my 50 sale/day goal if I spent a significant amount of time creating hundreds of graphically awesome listings, and updating them frequently.
I also had to stay on top of messages, answer emails, and deal with any service problems that might arise. At one point I hired some help, but quickly realized I would have to make a ton more sales in order to pay employees and maintain the income level I wanted.
I recall many late nights during my ebay hair accessory phase.
After a while Chinese knockoffs started to chip away at my sales and I started looking for other things to sell on eBay, Amazon, out of my garage or wherever.
I decided to try my hand at furniture. It was my first experience selling fairly expensive products. I found that while my margins were much more slim, I still made a great deal more money on each sale, and the best part was filling a furniture order was not much more time consuming than filling a hair accessory one.
Since that point I have stuck with more expensive, but lower margin opportunities in everything I sell from IM services to home furnishings.
I find that I am making more money, and have more time. My overhead is higher and in some ways so is my level of risk, but both of those can be managed at a comfortable level.