Moving on!
How do you know when to pack it in?
“Nothing to see here, just keep walking!”
Is that a fail? Or is it a strategy? Could be both. That’s what makes it so great, you can change your direction in your “Life” style business. Honestly you owe no one an explanation.
I recently took back a bunch of stale inventory from Amazon. The UPS guys now say, there’s only 65 today Steve. Ha, only 65, easy day! So the stuff will feed the Ebay machine for many months. Couple that with the 30K of items waiting to list and we are good on Ebay for 10 years. Not a bad “B” plan.
So is that inventory a mistake or a plan “B”? Yes it is!
When you pay in advance for your inventory and do not finance it you have options. I am in no hurry to get my money back as we have more money than time. We are lucky! Or are we?
Buying inventory (generally) below wholesale you end up with options. Matt Kelly says “Where is there a business where would break even as a worst case scenario? Love it!
But buying warehouse filler is not a good business plan. Who still has some Zhu-Zhu Pets in their warehouse? How about Phone cases? The drop is fast and furious when the market catches and surpasses demand with overwhelming supply. It’s easy to find cheap deals then. But that can be where the warehouse monster starts. It starts out slowly in an unused corner. No big deal you say. I’ll list it on Ebay and make my money back. Then the next layer starts to form, an almost inner crust of sorts. Next comes a harder layer, some boxes of returned goods, then another and another. Soon it has become a monster of crazy proportion seeking to take over your work space.
Lesson # 1– Just because it has a low price doesn’t make it a good seller! There might only be two people looking for a Iphone 4 case right now and buying 200 for a buck a piece is still a bad idea.
Sounds all too familiar to me. Can you relate?
How do you deal with it? Did you fail? NO! You learned something, you learned that a low price isn’t always a great deal. Say it out loud, admit it. Shout it out if you need to. We have all done it. Know you aren’t alone.
When do you let it go? When is it time to move on? That’s a tough one. If you love your inventory it gets really tough.
So lesson # 2 – Don’t fall in love with your inventory. It’s just widgets, Stuff that you bought to sell. No soul, it will not love you back. It has no emotions.
There are many ways to sell off your bad purchases. Have a yard sale, get a booth at a local Flea Market. You can list on Facebook, Craigslist, Offer up or one of the other local selling marketplaces. You can send it to an auction house or list in a Wholesale group.
Lesson #3 – Sell off the fluff and reinvest the difference! You likely will lose some money but you will have a chance to live for another day. Pick up what’s left, find a better deal and reinvest.
Lesson #4 – Wash, rinse and repeat! Yes, make a calculated buy, sell what you can, sell off what doesn’t sell and then wash rinse and repeat!