Secrets of the eBay

92 Secrets of the eBay Millionaires
“It’s Become Too Difficult to Manage by Myself ”
eBay does allow independent entrepreneurs to exert total control over their
home-grown businesses. For example, Alan says: “No one else handles
the payments but me. My wife could handle that if needed, but one person
needs to do the job every time so there are no variations. I think it’s important
to have total control over what’s coming in so there are no mistakes. I can’t
have any mistakes because if there are any mistakes, there’s going to be an
unhappy customer.”
As you might expect, there’s a limit to how much one person can do
by himself—even Alan Warshauer. While it’s true that mistakes make
for unhappy customers, it’s also possible to keep customers happy while
reducing the amount of work you do yourself. That’s where automation
software comes in.
“I’m going to change over to Zoovy’s system in the next month or two
because it has reached a point where it is too difficult to manage everything
by myself. It’s getting really time-consuming.”
In a typical day, Alan gets home at 3 or 4 p.m. from his job as a printer.
“After that, I’m working on eBay.”
For the future, Warshauer hopes to branch into product lines that have
higher sales prices, so they have to complete fewer transactions each month.
“My wife and I are always looking for new products to sell—high-ticket
items so we can lower the number of auctions we have. At the moment,
that’s not the case; later on, it’s always a possibility.”
As he speaks, it’s obvious that he’s doing something while he’s talking.
The sound of packing tape being unrolled is heard. “We’re not a big
company, we’re very small,” he says. “It’s not that I don’t want to get big,
but at some point you have to decide what do you want to do [sound of
wrapping]. When you’re selling little things [sound of typing] it’s difficult
to expand any further. At that point you have to start hiring people. With
the charms it fluctuates. One week could be unbelievable. The next week it
might not be so great. Then I would still have to pay employees. Right now
my kids are happy to help.
“I have to get ready for the FedEx driver,” he says hurriedly. “I do have
a pickup today.”
Lessons Learned in This Chapter
● Expect to work long hours at the outset, but also expect to hire
employees or contract with a service provider to help you build
your sales volume.
● Draw up a business plan that identifies the products you want to
sell, how you want to sell them, and how soon you expect to be
successful.