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Who is the Successful eBaypreneur?

Successful eBay businesses come in all shapes and sizes. And successful eBay business owners come from all walks of life.

In fact, that is what truly makes eBay the best entrepreneurial business opportunity online. It is one of the few businesses that you can start from exactly where you are at and learn and train as you go without a huge investment of time or money up front.

It doesn’t matter what prior business or life experience you bring to the table, everyone who has the desire has the potential to take their existing knowledge and experience and turn it into a successful retail business on eBay.

However, while those who have achieved success on eBay come in all shapes and sizes, there are common traits among all successful eBaypreneurs and successful eBay businesses.

Success Key #1 : Define What Success Means to You

This is the biggie. You must define what success on eBay means to you. Without this definition, you cannot achieve your goals. There is an old saying “If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll never get there.”

And it is a true statement. You must get razor clear on what success means to you.

This is the #1 step that people must take in building or running an eBay business and it is the #1 step people skip.

Here’s what usually happens… You see “PowerSeller A” featured on the cover of a national magazine. Standing amidst his warehouse shelves, the caption reads “The Life of an eBay Seller: From $1 to $1 million in 2 years!”

You think to yourself “Wow, that would be awesome! I’d like to grow a $1 million dollar business in 2 years!”

You set that as a goal in your mind. Which is great, except for one thing. You haven’t yet defined what success means to you.

And until you do, you are like a cork, bobbing up and down in the ocean. Getting tossed about by the waves, sometimes beached and unless the wind blows right, you’ll never land on that beach of your dreams in Hawaii.

Getting back to our example - The article on “PowerSeller A” explains how he works full time in a warehouse 15 minutes from his home.

Great for him. But upon further thought, you identify that you want to run your business from your office above the garage.

PowerSeller A travels 6 times a year to global trade shows to source products. An awesome way to run a business! EXCEPT that you have 3 young children and don’t want to be gone for weeks at a time away from the kids.

As you start to sit down and define YOUR vision of success, you realize that success for you means working 24 hours per week, out of your home office and traveling to a specific industry trade show once or twice a year. That right now while the kids are young, you want to build a part-time business that can be expanded when the children are in school full-time. Right now, you aren’t looking to make $ 1 million dollars per year. What success really means for you is an extra $2000.

Now we’re starting to get somewhere. Now you are ready to build YOUR successful business.

Everyone’s story will be different. But until you sit down and define your vision of success and hold it up to the litmus test of what works for your life as it stands today. You can’t take the appropriate steps to build a business.

Success Key Exercise #1 : Define What Success Means to You

Success Key #3 : Change Your Behavior

For some, this success key might fall into the category of “But I don’t want to do that!”

In his book “The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It”, author David Niven looks at scientific studies of successful people. One of the key traits that he found was this…

Your success is far more dependent on your behavior now than it is based upon where you grew up, where you went to school, or whether your path so far has been easy or difficult."

So how does this translate into the real world eBay selling?

It’s time to take a look at your daily activities, commitments and leisure time and start removing some things to make scheduled, consistent, room for building your business.

Why scheduled, consistent business building time?

Because additional studies have shown that when you schedule your time for an activity on the calendar, you are 72% more likely to do it, than when it is on a “To Do” list.

Additionally, Consistent Daily Action (CDA) trains your mind for success.

You will become more successful, much more rapidly if you work a set amount of time each day on your business, than if you approach it as a “weekend warrior” locking yourself away in your office for 8 hours to work on your business on the 3rd Saturday of every month.

Over the years, we’ve seen so many people who “want it all”. They want to watch their favorite show in the evening. Curl up on the couch reading at night or “veg” after dinner AND they want to build an eBay business + work a job and have family time.

Here’s the reality. Something has to go, to move out of the way in order for you to have time to build a business that can ultimately give you MORE time, and MORE money than your current job/lifestyle.

Look realistically at your day. What can you move, cut, or change to enable you to change your behavior now?

If you start thinking of yourself as a business person and make time for your business each day, you can grow a successful business in more rapid fashion.

Success Key Exercise #3: Hold up a mirror up to your daily behavior. Do you operate like a successful business owner or are you still working with the hobbyist mentality? Changing your behavior is the fastest way to change your business and your life!

Success Key #5: Make the Sale to Gain a Customer

If you learn this one principle of business, you will understand the success key that separates the successful eBay business from the unsuccessful one.

“You don’t get a customer to make a sale, you make a sale to gain a customer.”

Simply put. The difference between success and struggle in retail sales is repeat customers.

Look at the feedback totals of any shooting star eBay PowerSeller and you will see that a large amount of their sales comes from repeat business.

If you are looking at your business from the standpoint of “making a sale to get the dollars in your PayPal account” you are missing the biggest factor in increased business growth.

You goal with every sale should be to gain a customer.

Why?

Customers will buy from you time and time again.

A one-time = one time cash, but then the customer is gone. And where will they end up? With the eBay seller who welcomes them into the fold as a customer.

Success Key Exercise #5: With every item you list, every transaction you process, every sale you make, do so with the overriding goal of gaining a customer for your business.

Success Key #7: Build Relationships with Suppliers

Right on the heels of Success Key #6 comes building a relationship with your suppliers.

To ensure success in your eBay business, you must build relationships with at least a few of your suppliers. (And the more the better.)

Being able to pick up the phone and talk to “Margaret”, the sales rep for your wholesale supplier, discuss your product line needs with her, get her input and feedback on new products that her company has in the pipeline and call on her in a pinch if you need something shipped out ASAP is critical to the success of your business.

So many times we hear people say “It’s so easy to order from supplier A, I just go to their website, click a button and place my order.”

A time saver for sure, but not a business builder IF that is the only way you ever communicate with your supplier.

Because while you are easily ordering through the supplier website, your competitor Kristen is on the phone with Margaret chit chatting about spring trends, what did and didn’t sell in her product line and how she can get a hold of the supplier’s 300 remaining units of product “A” at a screamin’ deal.

What is Kristen doing that you aren’t? She is building a relationship with her supplier! And profiting nicely from it.

Now this doesn’t mean you have to cultivate a personal relationship with every single supplier you deal with. Some suppliers have largely automated their purchasing process while others may be companies that you don’t plan to do a lot of business with.

But you should have working relationships with at least a handful of your primary suppliers.

Success Key Exercise #7: Look at your existing supplier list. How many of them have you cultivated a relationship with? Take some time each month to work on building a relationship with an existing or new supplier. This one step will position you to grow your business significantly.