If you don’t want to read it, you can watch this video.
The first thing you need is a plan. The plan has to be bigger than you. It has to be scary big. You have to write down some numbers that make your heart beat fast. This is the only way you are going to propel your business to $25K to $100K per month. Take a day or two and write it out. Dream a little bit. Explore what you possibly want out of life.
The second thing you need is the vision. You don’t have to have it, but you need to be able to see it. You must be able to own it.
Let’s say you’re a regular guy working a job and you make $50K to $70K a year. There’s not a lot of money leftover at the end of the month, but you’re doing okay. I want you to close your eyes and see yourself living in the house you want and driving the car that you want. I want you to see yourself taking your family on vacations. I also want you to see yourself making more money than you need month after month.
Don’t go any further than that. Dream on that during the day. Sit back in your chair and close your eyes and just see it. You’ve got to do this.
The next thing you’ve got to do is get started. Essentially, you’re going to get started by starting eBay or Craigslist or Amazon by yourself. But, this is the thing. You’re going to do that for maybe a month or something. This is going to be something really strange.
You don’t have to know how to do eBay well or Amazon or Craigslist. I know you’re thinking you should become an expert at these. I’m saying, absolutely not. You want to get good enough to know what’s going on. That’s it for this plan.
Your orientation is not as a “worker bee” but as a manager. You need to work on your management skills. You need to read management books. You need to read sales books. You need to read marketing books. You have to become the organizational head of your business.
This is what you need $5K to $10K upfront right now. It’s because you are going to hire somebody as soon as you work out the basics. What this means is they are going to be sucking up a lot of money. They will be making more money than you initially.
Capacity comes in advance of the need. You have to build out the capacity and the infrastructure. If you don’t do that, your business will never get off the ground. Let’s be honest. There are going to be two or three or four times and you will hire someone and they won’t work out. That is normal. Hiring someone where they work out and are amazing is atypical.
After you get your management hat on. You will start creating processes and systems. For example, you need a standardized process for how to ship a box and how to fold a shirt. You have to build in procedures from day one.
Let’s say you are dominating the category. One of the biggest mistakes resellers make is thinking nobody can do it better than they do.
Now this is why you have to hire someone before this thing starts. You want to become accustomed to people who work for you and answer to you. That is a skill set you must build for this to work. Initially it will be you and one other person, because there won’t be enough to do for more people.
Essentially, you want to have so much to do that you have one person who is responsible for taking pictures and listing. Then, you want to have another person who is responsible for shipping. Then you want to have another person who is responsible for marketing. That’s four people. You can probably get by with three people for a while, but as you get to the higher income levels, you’re going to need four.
You really need a person dedicated to shipping. This is where things can fall apart. You need someone who will double check and triple check things who pays attention to detail.
Let’s talk about the domination of a category. This is something else that many small-time sellers do wrong. Let’s say you’ve made the decision to sell high-end women’s clothing. That means you are going to have to source very carefully. You’re going to have to source with passion. You’re going to have to go to consignment stores.
You can dominate high-end fashion. You can dominate watches. If you go on eBay right now, you will see people that sell nothing but Rolexes.
You can dominate high-end motorcycle parts. Whatever the category is, you have got to own it. Your listings should be so unique that everyone in the business knows it’s yours.
This is very important because what you will do by presenting a professional presentation is you will woo customers. You want to be known in that category. This works on Craigslist, Amazon and eBay.
For six months to one year, you need to roll all of the profits back into the business. This is going to be the hardest part of this. So, no money comes to you for six months to a year. I don’t’ care if you hit $100,000, you still go six months to a year. If you start taking money out too soon, you’re going to cripple the growth of your enterprise.
If you can hold out for a year, you’re probably easily going to crush the $25K goals and maybe the $100K goals.
If you follow these steps, in the beginning it is going to be very expensive. If you keep rolling your money into the business, you will start to see $25K, $35K or more in profit. This is the power of delayed gratification. If you put your head down and go to work, you’re probably going to exceed $20K, $30K, $40K, maybe $100K in sales your first 90 to 120 days.
You’re going to need a building. Let’s talk about the kind of building you’re going to need. You could probably get away with 1000 to 2500 square feet. You’re going to want garage doors. You’re going to want a grade level door or a dock. You want to always be ahead of yourself since capacity comes ahead of the need.
If you get 1000 square feet, you can fill that up quickly. So, I’m going to say you need 2500 to 5000 square feet. Believe me, you will grow into that.
Now, you’re cooking. You’ve got your building. You’ve got your process and your people. Also, if you’re doing this right, you’re not directly involved in the business. You have people who are doing the sourcing and listings.
You have to have a steady supply of inventory. You have to overbuy. For the first six months, you’re going to be broke.
The key to this process is sourcing correctly and buying at the right price. You have to get your inventory at the correct price.
That’s how you do it.
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