How to find a partner?

Landprofits

I know a lot of people would like to trade on eBay but struggle to find products to sell. This is not a problem for me, partly due to my background which is Procurement, and partly due to the fact that I traded part time on eBay for a while and in that time built up my network. I was very successful at selling so suppliers who dealt with are keen to offer me favourable terms. One of my other skillsets is web and graphic design, and also marketing, and thus I was able to build visually stunning adverts which converted (made sales).

My frustration is that due to a career, and a commute, I just don't have time to trade on eBay - so I have an entire skillset that is simply "gathering dust". I've approached various people at different times asking then if they're intersted in doing something, but you would literally be stunned that most people are just not that interested. Everybody would like extra money, or even the potential to develop something into a successful business, but very few people actually want to put the effort in to acheive these things. I have literally handed the opportunity to people on a plate, meaning I would finance the entire opertation, build the profit pulling ads, set up an eBay shop, all they would have to worry about is taking the orders, picking, packing, labelling and handing over to the postman.

Also, you would need to find someone relatively commercially minded. They would need to understand that once someone has purchased from you, they are a customer - and this means that there is a good chance they will buy from you again in the future - IF you treat them right. This is SO important. If you get a complaint, you need to deal with it, and orders need to go out promptly. I can just envisage phoning a new partner to check if all orders had been dispatched, only to be told "had a bit of a busy day - one more day won't matter". Well, it does matter. eBay is extremely competitive and to keep a good reputation your service needs to be spot on.

Anyway, to get to the point, has anyone ever tried advertising locally for a partner? Or does anyone know of any agents or websites that bring people together who are looking for opportunities?

This may sound unbelieveable but it's true, and it really is somewhat of a frustration for me!

jax25

Do you know what kind of things you'd be selling?

steviebabes

Could you not just advertise for part time staff and pay them by the hour? Lots of people would like a simple packing & posting job.

kiddy_guy

All you need is a shared user warehouse. They fulfill the orders on your behalf for a cost, and you could deal with the queries each evening. Or ask them to do it for a cost.

Hologram_2

I've been trying to find an eBay trading assistant myself and have asked for suggestions from this board. I've got a huge and vaulable glass collection to sell and I think I'd be better off with a professional service.

I've been suggested techref.co.uk but I'm in Sth Wales so I presume they only do work in this area.

If anyone has a suggestion for a comparison I've be really interested.
Thanks

Landprofits

Is that like a fulfillment house Kiddyguy?

Landprofits

jax - I would sell all kinds of different things as the market is always changing on eBay. Markets I was involved in a couple of years ago are now saturated with massive competition. As soon as you have a good selling product, somebody will notice it. Then it is only a matter of time before some competition arrives, and then some more...and so on

Landprofits

Hologram, trading assistants will of course take a commission, and you would need to find one that creates really good ads in order to realise the full value of your collection.

I'm sure some are very good although i've never had any experience of them myself.

It sounds like you are having trouble finding one, however, what you CAN find is a professional photographer, or even an ameteur photographer to take photos of your collection. Combine this with good ads and you should sell well.

When I was selling in eBay, one thing that I consistently noticed is having big,clear, pictures in the ads always improved results as opposed to just uploading one fuzzy pic. There is a way to embed the pictures in the body of your ad, someone with knowledge of web design could help you on that one.

It all depends how much you know about computers etc

StaffsSW

Looking at this from a different perspective, you could set your self up as an eBay Educational Specialist - take the course for £89, then become a consultancy service for setting other people up on eBay.

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/espteach/

This can be very lucrative - there are businesses out there that will pay up to £500 per day to have somebody train their staff up on eBay selling. You can be as flexible or structured as you wish, either holding classes in local colleges, or doing site visits and spending 1 to 1 time with people.

In the current economic climate, there are a fair few business looking to find ways to expand their market share and increase their online exposure. It's not too hard to convince business managers and owners to spend a few quid on your services with a view to giving them access to 100 million + potential customers.

Landprofits

Interesting - is this something that you do Steve?

kiddy_guy

Landprofits wrote: »

Is that like a fulfillment house Kiddyguy?

Pretty much.

What you basically need, and I could probably find you a few hundred off the top of my head, is a warehouse and a few warehouse pickers. They will pick your orders for you, even perhaps set up a deal with a courier service (or you could set up an agreement with one), they print off the despatch note and palletise for the couriers to collect. They could potentially also deal with CS issues, though I'd do it myself. If it's a shared user site, they'd pick your stock as and when, or run a pick every morning. Therefore you're not paying the overheads for the whole thing. Alternatively they may charge you per unit despatched.

There is one seller on ebay I know of who basically does nothing except order a container of sinks every six months from the far east - get them delivered to a warehouse and let the money roll in. Pretty simple really.

If it costs him £10 per unit into the UK, the warehouse charge him £5 to pick and despatch and the delivery cost is £10, plus a few £ ebay costs, if he sells it at £50, he makes a decent profit.