Determining Your Needs
At one level, the needs of an online auction business are very simple. You need merchandise to sell online. But what merchandise? Ask yourself these questions:
Do you want to specialize in one area, such as antique furniture, collectible plates, rare books, or used parts for 1957 Chevrolets? Or would you rather be a generalist who puts a wide array of merchandise up for auction?
Do you have the knowledge and experience necessary to be a specialist?
Will you be willing to compete with the other auction specialists already battling for bidders in your area of interest?
Where will you get your merchandise, how will you store it, and will any of it require special shipping and handling?
Will you accept items on consignment to sell for others?
If you want to specialize in a certain type of merchandise but feel you don't yet have enough knowledge, where can you get it quickly, before you launch your auction business?
You may be interested only in building up an online auction enterprise, but a key part of developing a business mindset will be learning as much as you can about business in general.
The Business of Business
You may be thinking, “What's to learn? I'll just list an item, wait for the high bid, collect the money, ship the purchase, and smile all the way to the bank. Sweet!” Actually, as your business grows, you will have plenty to learn and a lot to consider as you begin each new day. Things that happen half a world away or in your own neighborhood can have a direct bearing on how your enterprise fares on a day-to-day and long-term basis.
Your business needs may vary widely, depending on whether you take up online auction selling as a second income source or as a completely new career. A part-time business may require little more than a home computer, a digital camera, a few boxes, some packing materials and labels, a printer, plus a few items of auction-worthy merchandise. The authors are firm believers in simply starting a business from scratch and building up as you go.
Store your auction items out of the sight — and grasp — of relatives and friends. They may find something they like and expect you to let them have it for free or at cost. If you give in, you will cut into your potential profits and income.
To launch yourself into online auction selling full-time, however, you may need much more, such as:
An office, either at home or in a building
Warehouse space where you can store auction items and box them up for shipping after they sell
A business telephone and high-speed Internet access
One or more computers devoted to posting and monitoring your online auction listings
Software to help you operate and manage your business, generate invoices and receipts, and track your sales and expenses
One or more laser printers for labels, invoices, letters, catalogs, and other tasks
Buying into Knowledge
The smart online auction entrepreneur knows that knowledge really is power. It is also an indispensable link to stronger profits. Information should be one of your key needs, even if you plan to keep your auction operation no bigger than your kitchen table.
Start each business day by getting at least a brief overview of:
What's happening in the world and how global commerce is reacting
What's happening in national, state, and local news and how commerce close to home is reacting
What's happening in the online auction industry
What new changes or policies have been put into play on favorite auction sites
Admittedly, your first move may be to see how well your current auction listings have drawn bidders overnight. Once you have that perspective, give yourself some time to reconnect with the outside world and community around you before zeroing in on the process of posting your new listings.
Start reading general business publications such as the
Watch for trends, tips, and interviews with people who have become successful in the online auction world. Determine if you can apply some of their experiences toward improving and building your new business.
Money and Time
If you take up auction selling full-time, one of your key needs, of course, will be income — more than enough to survive from check to check. You will be hoping to make enough profit to feed and clothe your family, pay for your house or apartment, make car payments, give your kids some allowance, pay for their education, fund a vacation, buy new furniture — the list of demands on your income can be never-ending.
Try, if you can, to fund your new endeavor with money you already have, even if you have to start very small and build up. You will not need banks and credit card companies waiting unhappily for their payments while you are trying to buy groceries and pay the mortgage from your first auction earnings.
The Family Factor
Many people quit corporate jobs and start businesses so they can spend more time with their families. Unfortunately, some of them can end up spending less time, not more, even when the business is launched from a spare bedroom or just a few steps away in the garage. Launching and nurturing a new business can consume every waking hour, if you let it. The process can strain relationships, anger your children and relatives, and even make old friendships rocky. You will need to take special care to balance your business life with your family life, whether you work from home or an office.
Even if your online auction business is “your” business alone, it will affect everyone else living under your roof. Kids may be pressed into service to help pack boxes or carry the packages into the post office. Your spouse may have to monitor your ending-soon listings while you race off to search for more merchandise at an estate sale or yard sale.
Home-based businesses can create some unique and sometimes unpleasant family issues. You may find yourself competing with your spouse, your small children, or your teenagers for use of home computers, printers, phone lines, and common spaces. You may be using the dining-room table to pack and ship an odd-shaped, fragile object, while your spouse is trying to serve dinner. Your once-neat-and-clean house now may be cluttered with boxes, bags of Styrofoam peanuts, rolls of bubble wrap, and piles of items you plan to sell. And all available surfaces may be covered with papers associated with your business.
Pace and Balance
Especially at the beginning, when your new business needs sustained attention, you must be very careful not to overwork. Focusing everything on your dream in too short a time will be unhealthy for you, your business, and those you love. Pushing yourself until you are very tired and irritated may cause you to make costly mistakes or use faulty judgment or hurt a loved one's feelings.
You will have more enthusiasm for your business goals if you turn away periodically from the online world and spend special time in the real world with your family and friends. We all need to recharge our personal battery packs. Rest and recreation — R and R — is vital to members of the military. It helps them cope with the intense stresses of combat or the intense boredom of being posted in isolated places. Your auction business will never be as stressful as battle, but you will still need to schedule regular times to get away from your computers, boxes, packing materials, and piles of waiting merchandise.
Your most creative ideas may pop up while you are doing activities unrelated to online auction selling. Something you see while playing softball, something your child says while eating ice cream, or something you overhear in a restaurant may trigger a new dimension for your business. Make time for serendipity.
Avoid Isolation
A solo entrepreneur faces a special challenge if he has no family to demand some of his time and attention. He may retreat into isolation and spend almost every waking hour online as he attempts to shape and build a business. A stay-at-home spouse who cares for small children while running an auction business can fall into a similar isolation and be desperate for adult conversation by the time the other spouse gets home. Meanwhile, the single parent who operates a home-based online auction business while caring for children faces an even higher risk of isolation.
Try to find time to get out for a while and be an active part of a group of people. Let a trusted friend, relative, or babysitter watch the kids for a couple of hours. Go to a luncheon sponsored by the local chamber of commerce or other business organization. You may become acquainted with other people who run online auction businesses and who want to swap war stories, tips, and experiences. You may also meet management specialists and sales experts who can offer some advice, as well as business beginners who will look to you for some insights.
Avoid getting addicted to e-mailing, checking bids, and watching competition online. Get up as often as possible and do something active around your office, your house, or neighborhood. The online auction world will not collapse if you don't pay attention for a little while.
Join some friends or relatives for lunch and talk about anything and everything except business. Take your kids to meet some other stay-at-home parents and their kids. Go as a group to an outdoor concert, a parade, a performance, or a movie suitable for kids. After the movie, while you are on your way home, watch for yard sales, garage sales, and salable goods that may have been left at the curb for the trash haulers.
Make Your Children Part of Your Business
You may have unrealistic expectations about how long you can work without paying attention to your children. Keep looking for ways to involve them in the business, rather than push them away. The more they know and understand what you do, the better they will be able to adjust to the idea that they must let you work sometimes.
As they grow up, your children can be given more and more responsibility within the business. They may even stick with the family business after they are grown and help perpetuate it. Or they may choose pursuits and careers totally unrelated to selling online. In either case, you will have played an important role in developing their work ethic, and you will have given them a solid head start in life and business.
If your children will not cooperate with the rules of behavior in your office, hire a trusted babysitter or a well-behaved older child from your neighborhood to watch and play with the kids for a couple of hours while you focus on the pressing needs of your business.
Friends Versus Work
Some of your friends may drop by your home or office unannounced, because they still think of you as someone who does not work. After all, you don't drive off to a “real” job, so you must have time for their visits. You may also have friends who want to drop by to talk while they paw through the merchandise you plan to sell. Unfortunately, something collectible may become worthless in one fumbled second.
Be candid even with your closest friends. Let them know you have gone into business and will be keeping regular business hours. Offer to meet them for lunch or after your workday or on weekends. If they want to see your latest merchandise, ask them to view it online and give you some feedback on how well you have displayed it and described it in your listing. They might be tempted to bid.
