Wheelin' and Dealin' Part 2

So in part 1 we covered getting to grips with eBay. If you have come to this post first just go back and read part 1, just to gain some basic understanding of the point we are at. Here is a link: tomstopmoneytips.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/wheelin-and-dealin-part-1.html

We had established our bit of reputation. I talked about the importance of this reputation on the internet as this is how customers know they can trust you. a big thing in selling is trust. It is this which drives a person to buy anything. For example when Tesco announed the house meat in the burgers you can bet the sales of their beef and all meat products have fallen and have not yet recovered as it broke people's trust in them.

Now there isn't this word of mouth idea that happens in real life as does on the internet. You really have to advertise. But this is not important until you get a little further on. You have to understand there is a point at which you can't go any further unless you advertise and present yourself better but you can't do any advertising until you work out what direction you are going to take. This is still yet to be decided.

Now think about an area which you found sold well in and are interested in. Some area where you have a little bit of knowledge of prices is always good too. This will help no end with your buying with the aim to sell. Small, garage businesses have to start with a few tactics to outwin those better, more well-known people to gain the internet shoppers custom. It is a difficult market to open a stall at and sometimes the progression between clearing out some rubbish and buying products with the view to selling can be scary and dangerous. At this point you have several options but all of them revolve around you getting you hands on more stuff.


Now you have done reasonably well at selling some stuff second hand and have a vague idea of what people will buy old chess sets for, for example. So go to car boots, bric-a-brac sales and the like to try and get your hands on some more stuff at the same price. If you are shopping looks for similar items in multi packs or bulk buy offers which you think you might be able to make a mark-up on. Work it all out roughly in your head and don't forget to include things like postage and fuel into your calculations.

Don't expect massive profit margins at this stage either. It is just about establishing yourself and searching around for a products and a sales pitch that works right for you. And the more experience you gain and the more varied range of places you visit to try and get stock, the better you will get. Nothing is ever easy to start off with, and I can tell you it doesn't get any easier as you progress, but I can tell you persistence is key.

Going back to that trust idea, it is the most important part of selling online. If somebody can see you are trustworthy you have to make sure you are. So take care in the products you are sending. Think to yourself: "Would I want it to arrive looking like that?" or "Would I buy that over everything else?" Constant self-evaluation with mean that you can assess how well you are doing and look for ways to improve. Don't rot yourself too firmly in your ways, allow them to develop and flow. I know that sounds a very 'hipper' mentality to have, but trust me, you need to absorb the bumps with your knees to save your back from breaking.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Be Imaginative and Grown Up

One of the hardest things to do as a teenager is to get a job. Trust me. I have been there and done that. Living in a village I was at a disadvantage already with not many jobs going and a lot of people wanting them. The main thing these days is the issue of the law. Anyway, I won't bore you with it, that is for another post, but shopkeepers and employers can't be bothered with the hassle. if you want a paper round before you have finished compulsory education you have to get a working permit, which requires all sorts of stuff from a shopkeeper. Blah blah blah. However there are still lots of jobs which people will employ people from the age of 13 to do little things for them.

For example you may find a gardener who needs a hand on a Saturday or the milkman or whatever. What I am trying to say is don't be closed minded about what you are going to do. It doesn't pay. Trust me.

The other point I wanted to mention was that you need to persevere with your job. For example helping out with pot washer at you local pub could eventually lead to you being a waiter or waitress or even a bar steward. There is a natural progression with every job which moves through the ranks as you become older and more experienced and more trusted by your employer. Let me explain to you my path through my teenager career if you like:

I started as a Sunday Paperboy, earning just £4 a week. After 2 months I had been moved onto a Monday to Saturday round which was £16. I was progressing slowly and surely. After about 6 months of doing that I was asked to help out on a Saturday morning putting the papers up for the paperboys. This was 2 hours work at £3.50 an hour. Rubbish, I know, but from there I got to know how the shop worked. How to work the tills, how to put out the papers etc etc. I kept asking the boss, not so I annoyed him but so I was persistent and keen, if there was a job going in the shop.

Until one day, at the glamorous age of 17, he offered me a job part-time working behind the counter. So there was £23 from my paper round and early Saturday morning, plus 8 hours a week at £5 and I was making £63 a week from my part time job. Not bad eh?

That was just with a little bit of persistence and good hard work that got me to a stage where I could earn enough money to fund a car and a girlfriend. What I am trying to say is approach any job, no matter how boring it may be to start off with, in a mature and proffesional and also positive manner. Don't be the lad that does 3 Sunday rounds and then doesn't bother turning up again. Follow that path.

Don't Spend It, Save It!

One of the most effective ways of making money is believe it or not, saving it. Just think about the amount of cash you may spend on grub from the tuck shop or the newest COD, and think about how much that all adds up to. Try putting the £2 a day you might spend in the shop on your way to school in a pot and see how quickly this adds up. Also think about all the unnecessary purchases. Music, games, stuff like that. You don't have to pay such a price for some things as well.

I am not saying you should just give up all your little luxuries that you buy with the money from delivering the local newspaper, but just think about what you are spending and try saving it in a jar or pot to see how much you really do spend. Trust me, the results are outstanding. You may be able to save up in 2 or 3 months to buy yourself a new x box, or an iPod, or a new Bike.

If you just have a little bit of sensibilty when thinking about each time you spend money, then you can save a packet! Also, cutting down on those sweets will make you a little bit healthier too, which could also be a little benifit! 

Remember, SAVE IT, DON'T SPEND IT!

What is Drop shipping?

So you like the idea of selling on eBay or setting up your own web store, but haven't got the time or the space or the facility to buy, post and send. Well here is the perfect solution.


I have recently stumbled of a really good way to make money. It combines all the things people like, selling on eBay, setting up a web business, all of these things, into a painless and hassle less process, where you essential just flip money to make more money.


Drop shipping involves you selling a product which you don't have and then buying it when somebody buys it from you and then sending it straight on to the customer. Sounds pretty illegal right? Well that is where you are wrong. There are several wholesale drop shipping companies set up around the world to do just this very thing.


As a British citizen, I found ATS distribution to be the best source for this, and while their prices are quite expensive, they are very reliable. All you do is sign up, put some money in the pot, not as a registration fee or anything, but as a balance to buy stuff with, and then put an advert on eBay or your personal eCommerce website, and there you have it. It is a virtual stockroom, which somebody else manages for you, and I am sorry but nobody can say no to the convenience of it all. 


what I did was I put some items on eBay intitially, for the asking price of the Drop Shipping company, and then watched people bid and quite often the item sold for 20 or 30% more than the RRP, which is really good to see. You just need to choose your items carefully. Remember the bigger the audience, the better the sale, so electronic gadgets and headphones sell best, but there is most competition.


Another thing to be wary of it the postage and packaging, but this is a piece of information which is given to you by the  drop shipping company in most cases and therefore is less of an issue to worry about.


So it really is that simple to make money selling things now. I would say this is a great place to start because you have nothing to loose until you sell something, and then you gain if you see what I mean, so everyone is a winner. It gives you some experience of selling before you start buying real stock and gives you more headroom when you do.


I would advise this to anybody who asks me what the best way to start selling on eBay is. all your products are new so there is no worrying about that, and it is all done for you. Just sit back relax and watch the drop shippers do all the work!

Setting up a Business on eBay

So you will arrive at this article with some intentions of having stuff to sell on the eBay store. This might be due to a clear out of the attic or garage, or you have a valuable item you would like to get rid of, or you may have arrived here by reading our article on yard sales, and feel you are ready to get stuck into setting up a business on eBay. Whatever, this article will guide you through how to sell on eBay and how to set up a business on eBay, along with other sites that you can use to sell your stuff.

With your items gathered, you will be able to analyse what sells well and what to put on at what prices. Now anything techy sells really well. There are loads of people wanting to pick up a bargain on iPods or cell phones or old TV monitors and even assorted cable spaghetti. Other things which sell well are watches and jewellery, along with toys and games. While these sell best, pretty much anything that you would buy second hand will sell on eBay, because the target audience is so big that the chances of people viewing a certain item each day are high enough for everything to be covered and craved on the eBay store.

While that sounded very nerdy and mathematical, essentially you have a good chance with anything, just a better chance with some things than others. For example, I tried to sell a clarinet reed on eBay just to see what happened, and I didn’t sell. Not a big enough audience wanting clarinet reeds because half the population don’t even know what 1 is, let alone have a use for it!

So with your selection of items sorted, you now have the tedious task of putting everything up. First I would advise that you take a photo of everything you need to sell. A good photo means a good sale essentially, and no photo means no sale. Or there about. So get a clean piece of white or black paper (white is better because it is happier and more inviting) and slope it against a wall on a table or something so you have a nice homemade studio. Now you don’t need a fancy camera for fancy photos, it is all about the light and the background. With background sorted, make sure there is plenty of natural light and place your desired selling object in a reasonably artist manor if you can manage it, and snap away until you get a photo which looks nice. I really enjoy this process and take ages over it, but if it isn’t your thing don’t make it last too long, however this is paramount to your eBay lot’s success.

Next you need to create an eBay account if you haven’t already done so and go to the sell an item under the sell tab. I also advise at this point you set up a PayPal account if you haven’t done this either, as this will help to maximise your sale chances further. The Listing Creation form is very intuitive and just requires a little knowledge around the bidding price area. With the start bidding price, it is free to list if you start at 99 cents or less, however you may want more for your item, so you have to weight up the risks and the value of the item.

The one thing I would say is don’t go to high, but don’t go to low either. Think about how much you would want for it, then how much you would pay for the item if you were going for a bargain and take of about 10%. That is the golden rule really. Also if you have purchased the item previously with the intent of selling on eBay, then you need to make sure you know how much you paid for it in the first place to avoid loosing money.

Another handy tip is to look around and see what the same item is going for on other listings on eBay. Remember people buying on eBay go for a bargain, not to splash out lots or else they would buy the item brand new, so this is important to consider as well. Make sure you are well clued about cost and type of delivery too, or else you could end up losing money by posting it for more than you bargained for.

While this may seem a lot of information to take in at once, they are small things that you need to think about to get that perfect sale. If you are considering buying on eBay as well with the hope of reselling, look out for things which you could split or join together for more money, or collectable items which you know a lot about that are going for a bargain. It might then be worth taking these to a specialist website or dealer for the chance of a better return.

While this article largely covers eBay, there is also the option of selling on Amazon and Play.com which would be more useful for books and CDs and DVDs, as these websites, especially the latter, specialise in these items and therefore getting specialist traffic to them. You just refine your target audience by doing this. Another website to look at is online classified ad directory, Loot.com, but expect more content about these websites at a later stage.

Get paid to do stuff

This is as simple as it sounds. You do stuff, people pay you. Simple right? However I know there will be a lot of people going, 'I haven't got any skills that I can use to make money.' Wrong. There are always people wanting something, with the sheer amount of people and complexity of the human being it is impossible to suggest that there isn't something which you can offer soebody that nobody wants. There are so many different things that you can do to help people out. 

So your a maths genius, or a history geek. Great but what good is that knowledge doing in your head (apart from passing your exams and getting you somewhere in life, I admit that's a point). But it could be making you money. You could offer tuition in a subject for say £10 an hour, once a week and there you go, £10 of profit for you. I have an article about revenue and profit, but essentially, all the money you make on this is yours to keep because you are not paying anything to start off with. 

There are many other things which you could "teach" as well. For example, musical tuition is always a winner, people are willing to pay about £10 for a 30 minute lesson with music, and if you have the skills, then it is really easy money. I do 2 lesson a week at £8 each. So I get £16 for doing what I am good at, and what I love as well. One of my friends teaches piano for £10 a lesson. I also know somebody who charges £15 for an hours tuition of maths, to somebody who is in her class, but is struggling a bit. And she gets a box of chocolate when the student does well on an exam as a thank you. for me a free box of chocolate is enough of a bribe for anything!

There are also other things you can do, if your sat there thinking I don't really like school or work, and I am not very good at it either. Write a note saying you will wash people's cars every couple of weeks for a fiver, or mow lawns in the summer. Anything which you think is a chore, people would be willing to pay a reasonable price for somebody doing it for them. Humans are lazy, take advantage of it.

Another thing to remember when thinking about this, if your writing a note to put through people's doors or just in conversation with your neighbours, is that if you mention you are saving up for something relevant and educational, or something that will enrich you in your growing up, like a new cricket bat or a new violin, or whatever it might be, people are more than willing to part with the money out of their pockets. make sure you always add this is as it will win over anybody with enough of a leaning! I am not saying lie, but twist the truth if you have to. Obviously there is a point at which this wears off, and that is usually when you leave school and move onto university or a proper job, so do bare this in mind!

This article was just to open your mind about the possibilities of what could happen if you put your mind to it. I am not saying that you will think in your head you will do some lawn mowing, and then you will get about 16 people knocking on your door 15 minutes later asking for your service, but with a little bit of work, some free time and some hard work you can make a decent amount of money from this and remember it is all profit for you so you are quids in whatever you charge.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, then please email me at peachy146@ gmail.com.

The Money Tips Index - Updated 02/03/2012

1. Get paid to do stuff: Click here

2. Make a Bomb on Web Businesses: Click Here

Jargon Busting - Revenue and Profit

First of all I would like to clear up a few keywords. There is lots of jargon that comes with business and it's quintessential that you understand what everything means, so you can translate it back into English and use the information it comes with usefully.

The first is the difference between revenue and profit.

Now they both concern making money, but they are slightly different. Revenue is the total money which is made from a sale, while to profit is the money which is made on top of all the original payments for purchasing, manufacturing etc. For example, lets say we have just sold a bar of chocolate to somebody. Say we bought it for 30p a unit for a wholesale market and have sold it on at 50p a unit. That is a total revenue of 50p, as that is the amount of money that we have taken for that sale. OK. We had a chocolate bar, now we have a 50p coin. However we paid 30p for that originally, so not all of it is profit, so we do seller price - the bought price: 50p - 30p, and we get 20p. This is the amount of money we have made from selling the item, so that is the profit. This is one of the most simple, yet fundamental concepts which we have to understand in business, as everything requires us to be making a profit, but we can only be making a profit once all of our expenditure costs have been covered.

To break even, as it termed as, where you balance the amount you paid for a unit to the price you sell it for, we would have had to have sold the chocolate bar for 30p. we have not lost any money on the sale, and we have not made any either.

This is an important point to consider when choosing a process of making money, or when pricing up items which are to be sold. I would suggest, think of how much money you would like to make off the sale and add that onto the initial item cost, and how much you would pay for it, and then find somewhere in between. A standard guide is a mark-up price (mark-up is the price which the item is sold at) of 125% - 150% of the purchasing and manufacturing costs, but we will go into a lot more detail at some stage in the future.

So we have covered the basic principals of what this all boils down to. Making Money. I hope this has cleared the waters, rather than disturbed the silt. 

Thank you for reading. For any furthr questions please email me at peachy146@gmail.com.