Did We Make A Mistake? Nah!

In May of this year my wife and I were discussing other forms of possible income to help better prepare ourselves for retirement. My wife had been selling on E-Bay for a couple of years so we decided to try and make a go of it with our own e-commerce business.

To my wife's credit she did all of the required computer work. She has completed putting up three different web sites. I can't repeat some of the adjectives that I heard during the building of the first web site. The second and third websites were less stressful and the house was much quieter during that time. To her credit my wife gets up at 6:00 AM everyday, drives 45 miles to work, spends eight to ten hours there and then takes the hour long 45 mile commute home. Once she arrives at home she eats dinner at her computer while she attends to her e-bay accounts. She is always loading a new item to sell or packing another item for shipping that she has sold. Becoming a Power Seller on E-Bay has kept the wife even busier and I did not think that was possible. I have no idea where she gets her energy!

Having been in banking and accounting for almost 40 years I became the accountant and primary investor. I did not know that I would also become the designated driver as well. As we have become more involved I have also become the designated researcher and chief clean up and wash up guy. What a learning experience it has been. I have learned about vintage salt and pepper shakers, tupperware, old dominoes, toys, electronics and more. Can it be a lot of work, yes, but learning the history of so may different items and what it means as far as the dollar value and it's place in history has been fun and very educational.

Like many other small business owners, we have been watching our operating expenses closely.
Every Friday night we plan our Saturday morning shopping trips to the estate sales and garage sales. We create a Mapsco work sheet that leads us from the first location to the next and so forth. This procedure helps to limit the mileage driven, the amount of fuel saved and hopefully maximizing the buying opportunities for the items we are looking for. Like many of you, we have arrived at sales and the items that had been listed in the sales were no where near what they thought they might be or even driven to a sales location and they were not open. We have learned which estate sales professionals we can trust and the ones that may have a different interpretation of what we call vintage or collectible items.

We have redefined our definition of marketing and have also learned the value of having Affiliate relationships. Using affiliate programs has helped us to minimize the amount of inventory that we keep on hand and still meet our customers needs.

We are preparing for the holiday selling season now that will be here before we know it. We look forward to the holiday season like everyone else. Will it be a successful sales season, that remains to be seen but if not, I will know it will not have been for the lack of hard work. No matter how it turns out, I know we will enjoy having two of our three kids and their families home for the holiday season but we will miss our son in Las Vegas.