A lot of people think it seems like a stretch to believe you could actually make a living on eBay. But it’s no joke, I’m living proof. I haven’t had a “real” job for ages and my eBay income has allowed me to pursue other online passions like Tweeterpreneur and Escaping the 9 to 5 (my pet online projects; check them out!). So how does an average person who has a family (or at least goldfish) to feed, make a living on eBay? It’s easier than you think, if you just break down the numbers.
First, sketch out your expenses, like rent, car payment, insurance, monthly food budget, extras and maybe a gym membership. Whether you have 5 or 50 expenses per month, write them down and attach their monetary value next to it. Alright, now how much do you absolutely have to have to cover those expenses every month? $2000, $3000, $5000? It’s all up to you.
Alright. Now for the fun part: what would you like to have as spending/saving/investing or vacation money every month? An extra grand or two? Whatever that number may be, whether only a hundred bucks or three thousand, write it down. Now calculate your total.
Let’s say it’s $3000 a month to pay all your bills and leave you with extra spending money. Break that down over 30 days and you have to earn, in profit, $100 bucks a day. Now, from a work perspective that seems tough. If you are working for someone else making $10 an hour before tax, you’d have to work 10 hours a day EVERY day of the month to make your goal! Now that isn’t living. But from an online income model perspective, that ain’t hard. If you sell a product like Jewelry (I sell jewelry!) and you buy it in bulk from wherever (I’ll TELL you where I get some of mine from, if you sign up for the newsletter) and it’s $10 a piece of jewelry, and you sell it for $15, then you just made 5 bucks in profit. Not enough to buy a latte, huh? But wait: what if you sold 20 in a day?
Aha! All of a sudden, you just made your $100 dollar a day mark! And trust me, it’s not hard to push through 20 units of a product daily, especially if it’s something in demand, like jewelry.
This is honestly how I got started. I was at a cafe one day sketching out how much in profit I would need every day in a month to have enough to live on and some extra. Even a huge number seems doable when you break it down. And when I wrote out what I needed, it became much easier to accomplish. Take note, I too started with $100 dollars a day in profits, but soon outgrew that!
So go grab a pen and paper and write out your expenses, plus a little extra, and then find your daily number. Now minus the stress and headache of working for someone else, and add the amazing freedom of working from home. Tell me that isn’t at least worth trying to make a living on eBay. And if you need a more step by step guide explaining exactly how I did it, check out my eBook & get access to the amazing Rolodex full of priceless eBay selling resources.
