If you are reading this, most likely you are considering taking the leap and becoming an online reseller, whether it may be selling on Ebay, Amazon, Poshmark, Mercari, Etsy, etc. You might be interested in doing this to supplement your income or  more aggressively you might be planning in becoming a full time online reseller. In any case there is one major thing to know before getting started and nobody talks about this enough.

Sure, you might be excited and you just want to know, how do I do it? How do I start making money? and while there is a vast ocean of content out there that can guide you on your journey , what you absolutely need to have before raiding your closet, your garage or rushing out to hunt for vendors is…

Have A Business Plan

Yes, what you must do first is sit down and have an honest conversation with yourself. This will be YOUR business even though it might take place on a selling platform managed by other people you will still need to take it with all the seriousness. Ask yourself these questions:

GOALS

• What are my goals going into this business?
• Which are my short term goals?
• Where do I wanna be in 3 months from now?
• Which are my long term goals?
• Do I see myself still doing this in a year?
• How much do I want to be selling a year from now?

 

TIME MANAGEMENT & COMFORT

• Will I be able to make some life adjustments in order to commit my time to starting and growing my business?
• Will I be able to commit a couple of hours a day to my business, sometimes even compromising family time  or time with friends? Skip my favorite TV Show, spend less time on social media?

 

FINANCES

• How much can I afford to invest to start my business without using any credit cards?

To put some perspective into this question, we must be realistic of the immediate returns that we will be able to collect. For example, if I invest $100 in inventory and let’s say these $100 have a retail value of $1,000 I can expect to receive a return of 7.5% to 10% within the first week so that should go into consideration before you invest any amount that you will not be able to count with for a few weeks until your items sell.

“Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally, it comes from what you do constantly”- Mary Forleo

As much as we wish things were simpler, business like most good things in life is a give & take relationship, the harder we work, the greater our rewards will be. Like Mary Forleo once said “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally, It comes from what you do constantly. ” Although all of this might come off as overwhelming rest assured that these sacrifices are an investment rather into a more comfortable living in the future. If we want to start living a better life, we must work harder than what we are used to, step outside our comfort zone by planning & acting our way to success!