Today I want to talk about a very special topic that is near and dear to my heart: how to start an eBay business with no money. For those of you who follow me over at YouTube, (if you don't get on it!), I have videos from the past 6 months documenting my own journey as I restarted my own eBay business. If you listened to some of my early videos, I would talk about how I just got out of a homeless shelter and am in the process of starting a new life. Check it out:
Please excuse me not wearing a shirt. I come from the philosophy that sex sells. :)
Really though, this is the honest truth. I just got out of a homeless shelter and within 4 months had a full-time (I use that term loosely mind you) eBay store up and running. How you ask? Simple...
Get Some Cash
Duh, right?
The reality is though, if you don't have cash, you have no hopes of starting a legitimate eBay business. Yeah, you could sell some stuff you have laying around the house and probably make some money that you could use to buy and flip other stuff. But if you're in a situation like I was, this probably isn't feasible.
At the time I relaunched my own eBay store, I was homeless and living in my mother's trailer. Cue an Eminem song. To be honest it was depressing and I was flat broke. I was waiting for a disability check to go through and was considering just biting the bullet and going back to washing dishes at a restaurant. But one thing I had going for me was very minimal support from my father, who would loan me $10-20 bucks every two weeks.
You'll laugh, but that small amount of money is what I used to launch my business. Every time I had a little bit of cash I would walk, sometimes up to 6 miles! to a garage sale or thrift store and buy some stuff.
The key here is that I was very careful and selective and really only bought stuff that cost a dollar or less.
This meant a bunch of Ugly Men's 70s ties and some coffee mugs, but the truth was I was just getting back into the swing of things. Still am actually.
Which is what you should start to consider.
Take Small Risks
The next thing I advise to take small risks. If cash really is a problem, the only solution you might have is to get a job. Not everyone has the curse that is disability to provide for them, which means you might have to get a part-time job or take a loan or skip out on McDonald's here or there. Not that your stomach will suffer from this.
Whatever the case is, find some cash and take small, and I mean very small, risks. If you're comfortable selling something like vintage ties, or souvenir coffee mugs, use this as a way to get into the habit of looking for something that can be sold for a pretty high ROI while taking very minimal risks.
Yeah, the prospect of selling $10-$20 ties might not sound thrilling, but remember at this stage you're just getting your feet wet. What you really should be focusing on, at least in my opinion, is ratings and generating steam to really launch your business.
That means less focus on profit, and more focus on reps for what you want to do.
And honestly, this is nothing.
You can go to a thrift store and spend 5 bucks knowing you have a potential $200 of profit. That is no small feat. And yeah, while you're not guaranteed to make $200, at least not right away, the truth is you're just now getting a taste for becoming a reseller.
In which case, congratulations, you're not an eBay reseller. But this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Start Selling Stuff!
By now, you'll probably have cold feet and hear the lingering doubt in your mind. You can't afford this stuff. There's no way you can sell stuff without money.
I'm here to tell you this all hogwash. The truth is, you can sell stuff and you can make money. But again, you have to let go of these fears and just take a leap of faith.
For many, that might be a problem if you don't have enough sales.
See, PayPal does this for a lot of new sellers, which means holding onto your money until 2-3 weeks pass. If that's the case for all you newbies out there (don't mind the pun), then you're going to have to bite the bullet and go slow. Yes, PayPal will eventually learn to trust you and give you money after your buyer has paid, but I believe as of today that takes 25 sales to get to that limit removed.
Which means if you're strapped for cash, you're going to have to limit how many items you sell on eBay when you start out.
Not that this should be a problem. eBay usually only allows 10 items to be listed for you newbies, which means you're going to have to go slow, money or no money.
But the beauty is to see this as room for growth and know that you'll never go back, which means now is the time to learn your craft and keep going. But as with everything, this takes patience, which for most can be unbearable. But have hope!
Start Getting More Cash
Here's the gamechanger.
As an eBay business owner, you're going to want to start getting more cash. See, you're going to want to make a profit eventually and hopefully, make a living or at least side income off what you're doing. Which is the point of owning your own business, isn't it?
And the only way to do this is to build your inventory and increase your ratings as a reseller. See, the more you sell, the more the platform and buyers begin to trust you. You may not see this at first, but with every sale you make, you earn a better reputation and begin to build trust with your buyers. Which means by the time you have a few sales under your belt, you should have at least earned some more spending money.
But guess what, unless you want to call it quits now, you're going to have to spend that money again!
On what you ask?
Invest in Your Business
For most, this means buying more inventory and listing more. As you start to increase your ratings and work towards blowing past eBay and PayPal's infuriating seller limits, you'll begin to get more listings available and eventually have funds released immediately after you sell stuff.
Which means no more using your credit card to pay for those costly shipping fees.
Yeah, I speak for myself mostly here. Because that is exactly what I was doing to pay my own shipping fees at first. See, I would spend my money on inventory, and when something sold, I would use my credit card to pay for the shipping.
I did this for about two months but once PayPal had learned to trust my instincts as a seller, I was now given the gift of immediate payments, which included shipping fees.
Which is awesome.
But guess what, before you start counting your dollars, you're going to want to invest most of the money back into your business.
Why you ask?
The more you invest in yourself up front, the more you have potential to make more as you grow and become established in whatever niche or market you happen to sell in.
This means now is the time to invest in storage, inventory, or shelves and other stuff that can help your business grow. For me, this meant buying a decent laser printer and a postal scale so that my business could become functional and operating with a semi-level of professionalism. Which is what you should be doing.
To Sum This All Up...
As I said earlier, the only way you can start an eBay business or any business for that matter is to get cash. If you're serious, now is the time to consider liquidating assets that might be hard to let go of.
When I first started my eBay business 2 years ago, this meant flipping an electric piano and drum set I had in my garage. As a musician, it was tough to let go of these items, but the cash I raised for these two instruments was enough to get my business up and running without having to get a second job.
When I relaunched my business 6 months ago, this meant getting a $100 loan from my step-father as well as donating plasma to a local plasma center. Yeah, that might make some cringe, but as someone who was homeless for four months, the risk was hardly enough to discourage me.
Once I had cash, I was out in the thrift stores and garage sales buying small stuff. Which meant a lot of small investments, mostly all under a dollar, and some small risks.
But within 3 months I began to see the fruit of my labor. I sold sometimes in auctions for a relatively mild sum of $10 per tie, as well as selling a used camera lens I had laying around for $50 bucks.
But those small sales were enough to keep me afloat and as of yesterday was enough to allow me to invest in a basic store subscription. Which is what you can do as well.
So there you have it. Get cash, take small risks, start selling stuff, and begin to reinvest in your business. For me, this means storage and shelving units as well as more inventory. For you, it might mean just paying for gas to get to a thrift store. Whatever the case, though, start selling now and stop making excuses.
But first, make a sale!
...
As always, God bless and much love. And may your treasure hunting be forever glorious!
Newbie
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