Solo and Small eBay Sellers: Why After 19 Years I Intentionally Keep it Small and Tidy

Basically, what I've been seeing on social media is a lot of emphasis on growing your business and getting it as large as you can, and having 1000s of items and hiring people. And that's just not right for everybody. Some of us prefer to be a solopreneur, keeping it small, keeping it manageable. I started selling on ebay in 2003. So I have run my business a lot of different ways. And what I want to share with you in this episode is the things I did, and how they affected my business, how they

worked or didn't work. And everybody's experience is different. But there are very specific reasons why I don't have a huge eBay business. And I don't have people working for me, because I've been there and done that. And there are specific reasons I'm going to share with you when we get to that part of the podcast. So let's get into it. Today is Tuesday. I'm back on my regular

self imposed schedule. But I'll tell you, I've been so confused about what day it is, since I got back from my spontaneous trip to Greenville to celebrate July 4, on the last weekend of June. That really messed up my timing. So here's a funny story. And my kids are calling this a senior moment. But I just call it being out of my normal routine. So I went to the grocery store. Last week, I think it was Thursday.

And there was one of those pop up fireworks, things in the parking lot where you can buy your own fireworks and they're everywhere. They're in grocery store parking lots, Target, WalMart, parking lots everywhere in Georgia, so and there was a bunch of people in line to buy their fireworks. And I was like, why is this still here? And why are people still buying fireworks, Fourth of July is over. And I just thought that was really odd and I couldn't

figure it out. And then about 30 minutes later, I realized, Oh, right, Fourth of July has not happened yet. I celebrated it early. So I was just really confused. Because I don't normally celebrate holidays a week before they happen. But I will say that my first Fourth of July, in my mountain top home was a win. And if you've watched my YouTube videos, you can see the view. And I measured it with a compass. And my view is from 179 degrees south to 270 degrees

west. So that's quite a big chunk of the horizon with an unobstructed view. I can actually see Kennesaw mountain from my location in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is about 40 miles away. So on a clear day, I can see that and I know how far away it is. I can also see Stone Mountain which is about 50 miles

to the south. So I didn't know what to expect for Fourth of July fireworks but I saw the most amazing firework show for two nights, the third and the fourth for like two hours, and it was all above the tree line in different directions 40 to 50 miles away, and it was just so cool to watch, because it was all different kinds of fireworks in all different directions, you could tell the ones were further away, because I would hear the sound after the fireworks went off, so you'd hear it, but you

wouldn't see it. So that was a little confusing, but I did try to video it to put it on my YouTube channel. But it just didn't turn out very well, because it was, you know, dark and the fireworks were pretty far away. But for next year, I'm absolutely going to have a fourth of July gathering and fireworks viewing from my porch because it was really something to see. And I just wasn't expecting that at all. Okay, moving on to the YouTube

update. I did post my sales update video from June and revealed the $225 item I bought for $1 that is in my bolo, beyond the lookout handbook. So if you did not see the big reveal, you can check that out on my YouTube channel. And of course, shared a bunch of other sales that have notable commentary. And what I try to do there is give other sellers, the backstory, more information so that you can apply it to your business. And we can all make

more money. But one thing I talked about is my business model how I do eBay. Because there's as many different ways to do eBay, as there are eBay sellers. There's no right or wrong way. And I'm going to get into that more in just a minute. But there was a really nice comment by YouTube viewer, Queen of Hearts Shar now. And she says, I love that you share your business model with us.

That has become my mantra, actually, it's how I explain to other people, what it is that I am either successful at or not so successful at. It really does not matter what anyone else thinks about what I buy or sell. If it fits my business model, then I am really the only one that matters. It keeps me on

target. And I wish I could love that comment like 1000 times because I think sellers will let me rephrase that I know for a fact that sellers who I interact with on social media, or who email me or students in my school, tend to compare themselves to other people, especially on social media, when you see somebody shipping 50 things they sold in one day. That that kind of hurt sometimes when maybe you only had one or two things to ship you think

what am I doing wrong? Why am I not selling as much as this person. And just keep in mind when you see stuff like that. People on YouTube and people in general, on social media only really show you what they want you to see. So you don't know how much money somebody made when they're selling or shipping 50 items. They could have only made $1 on each item. They may not be keeping their numbers at all and not even know how much profit they're making. That is a huge I don't want to say

problem. But that's a huge thing in the eBay seller world is people don't keep track of their numbers. So they don't know how much they're making, or more importantly, how much money they might be losing. So just don't compare yourself to other people. Look at what you're doing. Is it enriching your life? Are you making money? Are you happy doing this business, because if you're not happy with it, you're not going to do Very long, it's very hard to sustain a job or a business that you don't like

doing. At some point you're going to burn out, you're going to not want to do it anymore. And that's one of the reasons I keep my business my eBay store small is because I don't want to burn out. And I can look back at my life and see times that I did burn out doing things that I enjoyed, because I didn't pace myself. I know that about myself, I tend to dive in headfirst and go as long and as hard as I can. And then it's just, I can't do it anymore. So

I don't want that to happen. So the bottom line here of this rambling is, do what works for you. Don't worry about what other people are doing. If you're not paying attention to your business, then nobody is going to be paying attention to your business. Just stay in your own lane, do your own thing. And don't compare yourself to other sellers, especially on social media because you're not getting the whole story. You're just getting what they want you to

see. Okay, moving on to something new I learned this week. This has nothing to do with eBay. But with enriching my life. When I was visiting with my friend in Greenville, she and her husband were making homemade ice cream with their ice cream maker. And this is not something I was raised with. I know that's a thing and a lot of families, but our family just didn't do it. And I just thought the process was fascinating. And then it dawned on me that I could do this and make my own

keto friendly ice cream. There's tons of recipes online. And I have been eating the kind of the grocery store that's pre made. And it's just not great. It's Halo top and lightened. Rebel, I've tried all the brands, it's really expensive. And it's not that

great. And so it never dawned on me to just make it myself so that it works with my ketogenic diet, which if you watched my health video on my YouTube channel back in November of 2020, I explained all about my health crisis and how I turned my health around and actually reversed type two diabetes, lost weight, I feel great, don't take any medications, all of that. And basically, what I do is intermittent fasting of 15 to 20 hours a day, a ketogenic diet,

and superfoods. So I did all this research on ice cream makers. And I do remember people having the kind where it's the big bucket, and the top is has the motor on it, so the top turns, but now they make them where the bowl that you put the ingredients in, is filled with some kind of fluid that freezes. So you put it in the freezer for 24 hours, before you actually make the ice cream. And that's

what freezes it. So it's like this new technology, and so many videos on YouTube about how to do it and recipes and so much available online. And so that's what I've been researching all week, which is timely because it is July and ice cream is great in the summer. But that's just something I've never done. And I was just thrilled to realize like the light bulb came on, duh, you can make your own and it's so much cheaper. And you can control the ingredients. And

it can work. So it's like you can have your cake or in this case your ice cream and eat it too. So that's just going to be fun. And I'll share some of that on my YouTube channel. Showing y'all what I made. But that's the hardest part of a no sugar diet is I mean, sometimes you do want to treat and the longer you don't eat sugar. When you do eat it, it really does make you sick, it makes you feel bad. And so it's like I just can't go back to that at this point. I need to make my own keto friend.

stuff. And so that was what I learned this week that was really exciting and life enriching. Okay, moving on to what happened in my eBay store this week, not a lot to report week before last was crazy busy. And then it just sort of stopped. Somebody hit the brakes, and I didn't sell very much. I sold a few swimsuits and odds and ends. The really big sale was on July 5, I sold a Vineyard Vines, Dunkin Donuts, patterned men's tie.

And I knew when I found it, this was going to go for a lot of money because it was just so unique. So I paid $3 for that at Goodwill, about a month ago, and it sold for full asking price of $149.97. And I knew it would go to New England because Massachusetts is the home and headquarters of dunkin donuts. And that is exactly what happened. It went to Massachusetts. So I priced it so high because I looked on terapeak there was not another one just like it. For the past year, there were no active

listings just like it. There wasn't another one on the internet anywhere. And this particular one didn't even come up in a Google image search. So that tells me it's unique. And because of that it would sell for a high price. So how did I come up with that price? That's a long story. But I'm totally happy with that sale $3 into $150. A very lightweight item easy to ship, unique item that probably won't be returned. Because it's so unique. That's

what I'm looking for. This was like the poster child item for my business model because it's small, cheap $3 sold for 150 didn't take up much room to store sold within a month and was very unusual. So that's what I look for when I'm outsourcing. I've gotten really picky on what I buy to resell because at some point my store is going to transition to mostly high dollar items. We always have some that don't really meet our business

model Exactly. But that's what I'm trying to do is more money, fewer items less work so that I can enjoy life and not be glued to my computer all the time. Okay, and now it is time for the vocabulary builder. This week's word is do they d u v et. And people get this confused with a comforter. And once again, I want to emphasize that I'm not doing these vocabulary builders to shame anyone or to sound like I am a micromanaging

eBay seller. But it's so important to use the same words that your buyers are using. Because if you don't, then your listings not going to come up in search. So if you're calling a Devey a comforter, and someone is searching for dubay they're not going to see your listing. So this is meant to help you and to help your listings be seen. Now the main difference between a dubay and a comforter is that a comforter is just one piece of bedding, while a do vay requires two separate pieces, an insert

and a cover. A comforter is usually quilted with the filling evenly distributed. While a dubay has an insert that works as the fill. The insert fits into the dubay cover like a pillow would fit into a pillowcase and you might think this seems very unnecessary. But a comforter is ready to use once you buy it. It does not need a duvet cover or cover of any kind. However, you can use a duvet cover on a comforter if

you wish. Some people do this if they want to protect the Comforter from getting dirty, because you can just take off the duvet cover and wash that. And then put it back on a comforter can work as the insert for the dubay. While you can certainly use a dubay cover on a comforter, it's not necessary. So this might work in a lot of different situations, like children's bedding, or something like that, where you are going

to wash it more frequently. And you can just take the cover off of the Comforter, and wash that and put it back on. But it's really important to know what you have. So it's, it's just like a giant pillow case. But the correct word is da d u v, e t. So if you have any of these listed, and you're not calling it a DA, you can go back into those listings and edit them and add that word. And hopefully, buyers will find your listing. Okay, moving on to the premium

library. I have been working along on the bra course, there is now a total of six segments, one and a half hours in length total. So if you've been waiting for more to be added, now would be a good time to go check out that course because there's a lot there. And last week, I added the part about all the things to look for when you are out shopping for Pre Owned bras to sell meaning your inspection checklist. And there's actually a downloadable document you can print out, keep it with you.

Because there's a lot of points that you want to check on to make sure that everything is in working order. And this segment basically just tells you what to keep and what to throw back. Now another thing that has been asked for is actually going to happen. I have committed to adding more shipping videos about how to make your own box. That is a skill I would like to improve because I just haven't really ever practiced doing it.

And as I move into more hard goods and not as much clothing, the skill is becoming more and more important. And this topic has been a common request from members in the premium library. So I am now going to tackle it. There are a lot of videos on YouTube showing how to cut a piece of flat cardboard into the exact size box you need. And I'm just fascinated with people that can do this so quickly. And they use the item to take the measurements like they flip the item around and then make these

slices with a box cutter. It's almost like origami with cardboard. And it's just fascinating to me. So I want to learn how to do that. And then break that down for my students and teach it the Suzanne way so it's easier to follow because some of these box mavens on YouTube, they do it so fast and they don't really explain what they're doing. So it's hard to follow and it seems like intimidating or do you have to know a lot of math and geometry to do it and you really don't. So

I'm working on that. And by popular demand, I'm going to have more of how do I ship this thing videos. But at this point, I have a few Frank unboxing videos as far as how to make a medium mail or how to Frank unbox a cylindrical item how to Franken box games and puzzles, knifes and knife sets along flat item or a tall item. So I've got a few in there but we're just going to work on creating more. And if you aren't familiar with the term Franken boxing, it's just reseller lingo

for make your own box. And this is a really important skill. Because I see sellers especially new sellers, they have this anxiety about I'm not going to have the right box to ship this in, you know, what do I do if I don't have the right box or feel like you have to box everything as you list it, because you might not have

the right box on hand. So instead of focusing on that, and having that anxiety, how about learn a skill where you can make a box anytime you need it, and then you have confidence in yourself that you can do that. And you don't have to worry all the time about keeping all these boxes on hand, or not having the right one when you need it, or what am I going to do if this sells really fast, I don't have

the right box. Let's just shift the focus to instead of you know, giving you a fish, we're going to teach you how to fish and then you can make what you need anytime you need it. But, of course, there are as many ways to ship things as there are sellers, there's no right or wrong ways. But you know, the point is that you need to have a confidence that you can do it. And we're going to build up that shipping confidence so that you don't worry about it all the

time. Because there's more things in life to think about that are way more fun than how to make a box. So we're going to tackle that. Okay, main topic of the video is why it's okay to be a solopreneur, which means just an entrepreneur by yourself, and why I run my business the way I do. And there is a misconception out there, that you have to have gigantic inventory and work on your eBay business like 10 hours

a day to be successful. And I will say in the past three or four years, there's been a lot of people coming to YouTube. And this is this is their mindset is that, you know, everyone should have these huge stores, you know, look at me, I've got this huge store. And that's just not necessary. Some of the information out there stresses that also sellers should be moving towards being a huge seller and hiring help. Well, I have been down that road. And

it was not for me. So I want to share some real experiences that I have had with hiring help, the different things I hired people for and how it all worked. Some of you might be considering this. And some of you might not. But that's okay. You don't have to be any more than a solopreneur there's a lot to be said for being in charge of every decision and every part of your business and just handling

it yourself. And there's absolutely no shame in staying small, doing it yourself, and being completely happy with it. Some of the most successful sellers on my Facebook group that post on money making Mondays and the $100 sales posts have less than 100 items for sale all the time. I'm going to give a shout out to George Kelly. He is retired, and he has experience in running estate sales. And he admits he only has about 50 items listed at a time, because that's

all he wants to deal with. Now, he will also admit that he has a large stockpile of items to list. But if you look at his sales, I mean, he is an exceptional seller. He has a lot of knowledge. And this is the way he runs his business. And I kind of want to be George Kelly when I grow up because he just has it

all figured out. So we're going to stop small seller shaming and bust the myth that you always should want to grow your business larger and have people working for you because that's just not right for everybody. And here I'm referring to hiring someone outside of your household or your family. So we're not talking about your significant other or your children. Or your mom, this is like, you would hire a stranger, as if you were hiring for a real

job out in the world. So here's some things I did and what happened. First, I tried to hire a photographer. And this was back probably in 2009 2010. And the word on the street about hiring an eBay photographer was that you should ask around at the local college, university, Community College, whatever's around you, and try to hire a photography student. That was somebody advice that I read. So I was like, Well, that makes sense. Okay. So I did that I found somebody. And she came to my

house for one day. And the problem there was, you don't want like a photography expert. photographing your eBay stuff, you want somebody who is time efficient, can follow directions, and can get a lot done, because my experience was the photography, students are all worried about the lighting and setting up the shot. And, you know, doing all this lifestyle photography, and it's like, you know, this person only got like three items done in an

hour. And I was paying her by the piece, not by the hour, because you never want to pay by the hour. If you're doing piece work, because, you know, the incentive is for the person to do more work, because they're gonna get paid more. So she just couldn't get past her photographer DNA. And realize, you know what, this is not going in the Smithsonian. Hopefully, this will only be online for a short time. You know, we just need to show what it is any

flaws. I had the mannequin setup, she was doing clothing. And that was just it just didn't work. I just told her at the end of the day, you know, I don't think this job is right for you, you have a lot of great photography skills, maybe you need to go try to get a job at a magazine or the the town newspaper or something like that. eBay was just not a good fit for that person's skills. So I kind of gave up on that idea. Then I moved into, I should hire somebody to do just random

things. For me, I just needed an assistant to get more done. So I wrote a Craigslist ad. And I interviewed some different people. I met them like at a coffee shop or whatever, and interviewed them and found one that seemed to be a good fit. And I trained her for two days, I was going to have her actually post my listings, I thought, well, maybe I'm going about this at the wrong angle, and I need somebody to do more of the computer part. And so she was I taught her how to

do a listing. And I think we put them into drafts at the time. I don't think scheduled listings were even a thing yet. So, you know, it was fine. I thought everything was fine. And she came for two days, I spent two entire like six hour days training her explaining this. I had materials written out like little checklists and you know, directions like if she forgot what to do, she could refer to the paper, like you would have an employee handbook, at, you know, a job out in the real

world. So I had everything she needed there. And then on the third day, she just didn't show up. I called she didn't answer she just completely ghosted me. And so, great. I have wasted 12 hours of my time training someone that disappeared. And I was just like, really? That is so rude. And so unprofessional. You can't even just call and say, Hey, this isn't gonna work for me. I don't like this work. Sorry, I'm not coming back.

Nothing. But you know, there's just that kind of people out there that they're just unprofessional and cowardly and they're not going to have any kind of confrontation. So the wind went out of my sails at that point, and just, okay, great. I didn't want that to happen again. So then the thing became outsourcing overseas, specifically India and the Philippines. So I thought, well, maybe I should try that. Because at that point, I was writing articles for the examiner, I had

a blog. I had my eBay business, I was doing the coaching on the phone all day and was selling on Amazon. So I had a lot going on. And I thought, well, if I could hire someone, to do some administrative stuff, post my blog articles, you know, do research on things that I wanted to write blog posts about. Social media was just getting started, I was on Twitter. And, you know, I came up with very specific tasks for this person to do. So. He was in India, and it went along pretty well, for

the first couple of weeks. Well, then, he started running my business the way he thought it should be run and saying things he wanted to say, and didn't do what I told him to do. And, you know, he would write the blog article based on his opinions. And, you know, he'd never lived in the United States. He didn't know how to talk to eBay sellers in the USA, and it was it was just a disaster. So I was like, yeah, this isn't gonna work. I'm not going to do that. So let him

go. Okay, so then I decided, well, outsourcing isn't for me, they have to understand my business, they have to understand the United States. So I need to hire somebody in the United States, because they had to talk about, you know, the post office here, and all those factors that are unique to the United States. So I hired a woman as my personal virtual assistant, and gave her some tasks to do on social media, posting articles, blog posts, answering emails from my

coaching clients. And she was an eBay seller too. So she understood the business and knew how to talk about it. But that went on for a few months. And then I started getting signs that she wasn't doing her job. Like she wasn't posting anything on Twitter. She wasn't answering emails, she just stopped doing her job and disappear. She wouldn't answer emails, she wouldn't answer her phone and phone actually was disconnected.

And like, everything just blew up and fell apart because she just walked away. She was still out there because I would see her on social media. But she just ghosted me. And I had been paying her to do all this work for a couple of weeks. And she hadn't done it. And and I had her on payroll. So you know, she just walked away. And so, to me, that's the same as stealing. When you are on payroll, and you're not doing the work that you're being paid to do. That's the same as

stealing from somebody. So I had to take some legal action against her. And it was just this big mess. And I was like, you know, I'm just not going to, I just don't want other people's hands in my business, because they keep screwing it up. And it was very frustrating, because, you know, I wanted to hire people and give them work. And especially women. Because I believed in what I was doing. I was very passionate about eBay and teaching eBay. And so I was trying to include more people in

my successful business. So then I went at it from a different angle. And I decided, you know what, I'm going to do all the work. At that point. still single mom, my kids were middle school, I think, my oldest, my daughter was learning to drive. So high school. So my son was in middle school, my daughter was

in high school. And I thought, well, what if I hired someone I know and trust to help me with parenting and household stuff, and then I just do the business stuff and don't let anybody stick their hands in that mess it up. So one of my dearest friends from life and everything, you know, we met each other in first grade. She was in my wedding. live close to me. And we just been close friends our whole lives. And so I thought she was out of a job

at the time. So I was like, I could pay her to come over and do you know, errand running, go to the grocery store for me cook our dinner, run the kids around to their activities and stuff. And she actually helped my daughter learn to drive because my daughter and I just butted heads. And it was just not a good situation, me teaching her a drive. So that was a huge help. And that worked for a while. It was just great to have her in my home, and my kids

loved her. And, you know, she'd come over and, and cook food that like I didn't ever cook for us, it was nice to have kind of like a personal chef that would come in the afternoons and do all these things. So that's one thing that worked very well was hiring someone to do all of the non business stuff, the personal stuff, she folded laundry, she, I mean, she took my dogs out to walk them, she did everything. So it was like a personal

assistant. And I think that came to an end because she got a job and she couldn't do it anymore. She got you know, a real job out in the world. So I didn't know of anybody else to hire to do that, that I knew, and trusted because at this point, it was all about trust. I just didn't trust people anymore. And, you know, to hire them to do things because I'd had all these situations where it didn't work, or people ghosted me, and I just wasn't going to do that anymore.

So at one point, I had 11 people working for me at one time. And I had been promoted through the coaching program, so that I was not only coaching, but managing other coaches. So the 11 people included six people, I managed through the coaching program, you know, helping them put out fires with their clients or helping them figure out how to help a client succeed. You know, all those roadblocks when you're, when you're a manager, you're solving other people's

problems. And then I had I think I had a high school kid in the neighborhood, photographing my eBay items. And then I had two people helping with packing and labeling my FBA shipments to Amazon. I had a virtual assistant, the one that disappeared. And then that personal assistant that came to my house, so my life became all about managing people, and not about reselling. It was stressful. And it wasn't fun

anymore. And I started to doubt myself, like, Oh, I'm a terrible manager, because I don't like managing people. And I never wanted to hurt anybody's feelings. And you know, I would just do the work myself, instead of telling someone they did something wrong. And, you know, I was avoiding confrontation and all that kind of stuff. And it's like, wait a minute, I miss going to Goodwill and finding

things to sell. I miss interacting with my eBay customers and seeing how excited they get when I have something they want to buy, or, you know, they leave feedback about how thrilled they are with something. And so I'm just not cut out to be a manager, I don't want to be a manager, I want to do the business. I want to go treasure hunting, I want to bring these items home and rescue them and make them pretty

so that I can sell them. And you know, hear from my customers that they love what they bought from me. That's how I'm wired. I'm not wired to solve other people's problems all day and manage people that's just, I just don't think that's why I was put on this earth. I like helping other people succeed, such as in eBay selling, you know, helping them work through situations that it's so easy for me because I've done it 1000 times like I know the answer

right away. And I can tell you, and you do that thing that I told you and your problem is solved and everybody's happy. So I said all of this to say that hiring people and managing people is not for everyone and it's not as easy as it sounds because It's hard dealing with people, customers are one thing. But when you're paying someone to do a job for you, and you have to get into all this management stuff that can be very stressful and time

consuming. And that's just not the way I want to spend my time. I want to get out there and shop and find fun things. And then when I figure something out, I can tell these 1000s of eBay sellers that listen to me and watch me on YouTube. And they can take that information and go be successful. That's what I want to do. So maybe you can even hear the passion in my voice. When I talk about treasure hunting, and rescuing items and reselling. That's

where the passion is. So if you're having this struggle, and you're not passionate about what you're doing every day, then change it. Figure out what lights your fire, and what gets you excited every day. Like you can't wait to get to work every day. You can figure that out. You can do this too. It just change is hard change is scary. Change is uncertain. But if you keep working on it, and keep changing and shaping and molding your business into what you want to be, then it's just not like

work. You know, eBay is kind of like a game. It's like, I'm going to go find stuff for $1 and then I want to sell it for $100. And that's what I'm doing now. That is how my eBay business is evolving. Okay, so that is my rant for the week. As always, I love your comments. You can email me you can reach out on Facebook or even comment on YouTube. I'm everywhere online. This is Suzanne a wells teaching you how to do eBay the right way. And make sure to follow me as new episodes are added every

week. Be nice to each other. Make sure you are living the life you want. And of course have a profitable and productive and fun day on eBay. Talk to you next week. Bye