| One of the biggest mistakes that new eBay sellers | | | | NEVER SPEND MORE THAN A NORMAL WORK |
| make when trying to establish their online business | | | | DAY |
| empires is that they put way too much time into | | | | If you are spending more than 10 hours of your day |
| developing their business. Not that this is necessarily a | | | | obsessing over every part of your business, you need |
| bad thing, but it is crucial that you use the limited | | | | to take a step back, reevaluate your model, and |
| resource of your own time as effectively as possible. | | | | consider hiring additional staff if your revenue allows |
| Just because you spend a lot of time on your online | | | | for it. The entire point of utilizing eBay to run your online |
| eBay business doesn't mean you are spending that | | | | operations is to make your life easier. Constantly |
| time as effectively as you could be. Wasted time is | | | | clicking "refresh" or "F5" to stay abreast of the latest |
| wasted money, and no business is long successful if | | | | updates is not a good, efficient use of your time as a |
| they are wasting money. You need to make sure that | | | | business owner. |
| your eBay business is working for you, not the other | | | | DELEGATE WHERE EVER YOU CAN |
| way around. Here are a few tips to keep in mind to | | | | As mentioned before, try looking to hire out help, or |
| make sure you are making optimal use of your time. | | | | delegate responsibilities that, while important to |
| DO NOT OBSESS OVER EACH PENDING | | | | maintaining good service, do not directly impact the |
| AUCTION OR SALE | | | | bottom line. If you need someone to answer the |
| It is way too easy for the online business proprietor to | | | | voluminous amount of customer questions and |
| get too wrapped up in the online proceedings, spending | | | | feedback, consider hiring a freelancer for five or six |
| 16 hours a day or more tracking every bid, every page | | | | dollars an hour to work a few hours a day to process |
| hit, every comment and all of the transactions of both | | | | everything. Consider hiring a bookkeeper to balance all |
| them and their competitors. If this is your approach, you | | | | of your accounts and make sure that all of your fiscal |
| are putting too much into your online eBay business, | | | | goals are being met. Either (or both) of these moves |
| and you are not taking advantage of the greatest | | | | will allow you to devote yourself to the aspects of |
| benefit of running an online business through eBay - | | | | your online eBay business that suits you more or that |
| that eBay is a turnkey operation that does most of the | | | | you find more interesting. |
| work for you at the front end of your business. Most if | | | | AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND |
| not all of your concerns and attention should be | | | | OF CURE |
| directed to the back end of your business, overseeing | | | | Try to do as much planning ahead of time as you can, |
| matters such as supply, inventory, payroll (if applicable), | | | | and anticipate problems before they occur. It is always |
| delivery and customer service. | | | | easier to prevent a problem than it is to react to it. |