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Starting an eBay business
Here’s a step-by-step guide to getting your eBay business started.

1. Log into the eBay site you want to sell on - in my case, I sell some items on eBay.com and others on eBay.co.uk because I live in the UK but some items are likely to sell better in the U.S (plus there’s a way bigger market there than on this tiny island!) Once you have logged on simply click on Register - it’s free to join.

2.  If you look at the very top of the page you’ll see a ‘sell’ link - hover over this and you’ll see a drop down menu which includes ‘Sell an item’ ‘How to sell’ and ‘Seller fees’ so you can pick up lots of useful info on eBay itself about the basics.

3. Your main decisions before starting an eBay business are ;
a. What to sell and
b. How much time you can put into your eBay business and
c. How much money you want to make.

I will help with the first question as I have a whole page about what to sell on this site: What to sell on eBay

You alone can decide how much time you can put into your eBay business, and I guess if you want to make a decent income you’ll find more time!

How much money do you want to make?
Some extra income? A huge income? Want your eBay business to enable you to leave your job/have more time with your partner/more flexibility? Make those decisions as they will affect what you do next.

If you want a serious income I recommend you open an eBay shop. There are a number of advantages of doing this;

1. It gives you a professional presence on eBay and a domain name which you can use to send visitors to your shop, and enable customers to easily find you again.

2. It saves you LOADS of money because although it costs a small amount per month to have your eBay shop, you can then put items into your shop for a far lower listing fee than in Auctions or Buy it Now. You then draw people into your shop via the items you DO put into auctions.

How to actually sell an item on eBay?
I created a separate page about this as there’s too much information to fit in here; How do I sell something on eBay

Draw up a plan of action before starting an eBay business.
You need to treat this like a business, not a hobby if you want to make money. How many items will you have time to list each week? How much profit can you expect to make off each?

Don’t forget, eBay take a fee from you when you sell an item as well as when you list it so you need to allow for that, plus your postage and packing if you offer that free to your customers.
Set your goals of how many items you want to sell each day/week/month.

Study the successful eBayers.
When starting an eBay business, or any business actually, it’s a false economy to not spend money on information to learn how to make money on eBay. The more tips and tricks you can learn, the better. You’ll make more money and much faster than if you try to learn it all by yourself. The information in an $11 ebook for example could help you to quadruple your eBay sales, year in, year out...

In all my businesses I believe in learning from those who have been successful before me, and following what they do. I’ve recommended ebooks and videos throughout this site that will help you, and you can browse some here: Ebay ebooks
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