Suceeding inspite of the economy in 2009

Ok, I'm kind of lucky because I don't have to provide ALL the support from my family. BUT I do have to provide half. The half I used to provide by working 8 - 7 in a corporate office for a totally nasty man. For the three years that I've been fulltime on ebay and other venues, it's not been so much of a problem. For the last 3 months? more so.

That's why, for 2009 I've made some plans and outlined some methods for me to try. Now, my big failing is not in organization. It's more in the consistency of the follow thru. I will follow thru initially but then I get bogged down in the minutae of life and next thing I know, it's December 31st again.

So, my first step was to buy Danna Crawford's Powerselling Mom Calendar. She has a DVD/Cd that's about 30 min in length where she explains how she developed this calendar and how she uses it. So, even at $30 I figured "it can't hurt". So I bought one.

And I love it. It's got nice big blocks for each day to write notes in or schedule things in. And it's go, on the top half where there is usually pretty sunset, a cute kitten or some crazy cartoon, Danna had put some motivational phrases on one side and alist of things that need working on on the right side.

And at the top, linkes for goals. $$ on ebay , Other $$ etc. Dream goals and monthly goals. And in the middle a large open space where can stick post-its or write letters to yourself.

Want one for your ownself? On ebay go to ASKDANNA and nab one!! And if you don't like ebay/paypal I'll post a link down there for Amazon.

I've started mine for 2009. My first goal for this year is $5,000 a month in sales (well that's the "dream goal". I've routinely sold around $3,000 a month for the last 3 years. Sometimes more, sometimes less but normally at least $3,000. So I'm looking to increase my sales by 50% this month. To do that, I need to move some stuff out of the store, put some stuff on ebay that hasn't been listed and encourage people to buy buy buy!

And I'm already looking ahead. You make your money when you buy your merchandise by getting the best price. And right now I'm looking ahead to Valentine's Day, Easter and Mother's day. That merchandise needs to be on your website and in your ebay/amazon/bonanzle store 30-45 days ahead of time. So it's time to gear up now for Valentine's day.

Among other things, I have to get better at using the ebay approved "store marketing newsletter.". And that is where I'm off to now. The link to Danna's calendar on Amazon is on the right side on the carousel or it's ASIN number: B001OHV3UO

Well you can see how excited I was to go to eBay Live 2008! I loved New Orleans Live. So off I went - !
I have some suggestions for eBay for BEFORE the next Live or even before the next regional get-together:

1. Pick a more consolidated venue. Walking 2 miles from one class/seminar/talk to the next wears folks out. There's been a lot of talk about how "quiet" and unexciting this live was. I didn't think it was a lack of enthusiasm. More a lack of energy. I'm an "Original" ebayer - been here 11 years. I'm 60 Stinkin' years old. That walking stuff got old the first day.
   Maybe a college or university while they are on hiatus - so you'd have inexpensive housing in the dorms and the classes would all be pretty close together.
2. Schedule multiples of EVERY class since I got closed out of 3 because the fire marshall called a halt to the overcrowding of the rooms. Or put the popular ones in venues that can expand.
3. For the Gala?? Could we have some "dinner" music during dinner? So we can talk to the people at our table - especially for people like me that come by themownselves. It would have been nice to meet eight more people. But we couldn't hear ourselves think. On the shuttle afterwards, one of my fellow "oldies but goodies" say the band, Twisted Lister, was making his heart hurt. Made my ears hurt.
4. Besides color-coding classes by experience level (I think that's what they did), sort them by "Buying experience" or Selling Occasion
5. Quit it with the stupid buzz words. We counted (my friend Louise actually counted) during the keynote address and John Donahoe actually said "GREAT BUYING EXPERIENCE:" 21 times in like 10 minutes. JEEZ! get a new speech-writer.
6. Announce all the policy changes for the year at least 2 mos before LIVE so the classes can address the questions and confusions.

Will I go to Orlando? If I'm alive, I'm there. (I'm 60..ya know I hate to think I might not make it ...but realistically? I might not. I am however gonna try. )

I think eBay's making a big mistake isolating us and thinking we'll all gonna stay "down on the farm" after we've seen Amazon and Googlebase etc. All the venues should be encouraging us to make webrings of our various selling venues, letting our Amazon customers come to eBay and vice versa. They'll all cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

Does the various venues' mgmt think we won't find ways "around the roadblocks"? I have confidence someone is figuring it out right now. Won't be me cause I ain't that smart but I will follow their lead.

At this year's eBay Live, I did find the enthusiasm to be more subdued. It was more like resignation - "oh well I put a lot of work into my ebay store - guess I will keep it going." Rather than "OH MAN! THIS IS GREAT!" like I heard in 2004 in NO.

I did see fewer people (and it wasn't hard to figure out when I walk right in and right up to the registration desk to get my badge.) The marble canyons of McCormick Place literally echoed - it needed more bodies for absorb the sound waves.

WHAT did you think?

Ebay - some fun - more profit

I have been really lacksadaisical about "blogging" (obviously). So I'm gonna try to post at least once a week.

Here's my current reaction to ebay's Feb. changes.

I listed my little fingers off in March and had the best month ever. April?? So so so far. 1/3 of March and April is 1/2 over. Considering the complaining I hear everywhere about how bad sales are, maybe I should shut up and keep listing. (NOT HAPPENING)

But here''s what I've been doing since I posted last -

#1 - got the software set up to use THEARTOFBOOKS to list my 3000 books
#2 - set up ABE and Biblio to upload too
#3 signed up for Prostores and have some items almost ready to open there. Should be open by Sunday 4-20-08
#4 put all my ebay stuff on I-offer - had 2 sales and 1 offer there

I've also been posting sales to the various news and email groups I belong to and so I have some "off-ebay" sales (SWEEET! no fees - all cash local pickups! I love it)

This week's schedule (called a to-do list here)
1. Finish the Prostores
2, set up AOB to upload books to ebay and 1/2.com
3. sign up for either Alibris or Amazon (well if sales are good, maybe both!


Ok so that's what I'm doing to counteract the ebay fee increases and stupid feedback moves.

What about you!!