Dreaming of that cottage by the sea

cottage_by_the_sea

Hi guys and gals,

Slept a bit better last night – either it was a bit cooler or I was zonked.

Bootsale was ok. Got rid of a few larger items and gained a little more cash for the funds. The huge figure to raise still looks enormous. I’m not even half way yet and it’s the 15th …so I am officially behind. That’s not counting my float nor the car insurance . I have accepted that I will be dipping into my overdraft this month but planned to be out of it by the 1st. However, now I’m worried that I’ll be a few hundred under and sinking come the start of August…and my live credit card is nearing it’s limit again. Very Depressing!

Wow…that’s a cheery start to the day/week..

Let’s think of some positives:

It’s cheap listing week on the Bay,

I have a few trips out planned with friends over the next few weeks (already paid for),

loads of volunteering out in the sunshine,

Hubby has a friend coming to stay at the end of the week. Last time they managed to persuade him to go out for a few trips. Apart from being nice to spend time together out of the house, it was good to have another person telling him it’s not normal to prefer to stay inside when you live somewhere gorgeous in the summer. I’m just worried that either it will be too hot for them to come or Hubby will use that excuse not go out.

Anyway, it’s Monday and I’ve not packed weekend sales yet, so must get cracking and then out with friends this afternoon, followed by an evening of volunteering.

Have a good day…Cottie
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July goals: Personal bills £250/250,house bills £352 /£1050,car insurance £0 / £300, float for August 0/£310

cottage_by_the_sea

Hi there MSEers,

Hope you’re all enjoying this gorgeous weather.

Red line day today. That is – deadline for money to be in house account. Ouch.

Well, I transferred enough over to cover all DDs going out in next day or two, and that account will stay in the black. In fact in my transfer around the houses, I accidently paid £35 more than I needed to. Never mind, it will reduce the money required on 1st to pay the council tax.

To achieve this, my main account has dived into it’s ‘free’overdraft. I believe there is a 50p a day charge though. I’m almost at the limit on my active credit card as well.

So to get out of this hole, I need to :

raise £700 to cross back across the line into the black

Raise £300 for car insurance – due early August

Raise £300 (£190) for council tax (1st) / and rest float to take me up to 15th August.

Optimistic:

Raise £30 for friend’s birthday pressie, buy £50 packing materials, put small stock order in (£100 min order).

Pay off some of active credit card to give ‘emergency’ room.

Hubby’s friend as arrived and they have gone out…so no excuses for me not to be cracking on with some work. Apart from meeting up with some friends tomorrow morning, I have nothing planned until Tuesday so need to list,list, list.

Hanging on in there….Cottie

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July goals: Personal bills £250/250, house bills £1085 / £1050,carinsurance £0 / £300, float for August 0/£290. OVERDRAFT £0/£700

cazmanian_minx

((((((((Cottie)))))))))))

Keep on keeping on. I panic every year over the summer when sales drop off, I just have to keep reminding myself that if I can scrape through the next few weeks they'll start to pick up again. This weather really isn't helping. I shall start doing a raindance or two to drive people back inside to start buying stuff again

cottage_by_the_sea

Thanks for the encouragement Caz… much appreciated.

It is fairly dead online but strange things are still selling. I sold 2 of my best selling winter lines yesterday.

I didn’t make much use of the cheap listing offer this week.I have been ending a lot of Good until Cancelled listings and moving them overto 30 days if good sellers or high watchers. If not, I take them off for a bit and relist a few months down the line. Rumour has it that 30 day listings are getting more visibility and it appears to be true from recent experience. I had a look through my inventory and there wasn’t much that I wanted to invest 5p into relist. Now, if it was free…that would have been different – everything would have been relisted.

I guess the Bay was testing to see whether half price would generate the same number of extra listings as their free offers. Many people on the forums commented that they weren’t making much use of the offer, so hopefully the powers that be will return to completely free next time.

Caz…interesting to hear that you are leaving the river. I haven’t been on there very long and don’t have a huge inventory but it generates enough income to offset my old part time job. My inventory is seasonal and small so not worth me going the Fulfilment route. I haven’t use it myself so don’t know the nuts of bolts of how it works but what about putting your items on Sale. I assume that the river would take a percentage of the new price and it would shift the stock. Alternatively do you have an account manager that you could talk to, tell them that you are thinking of leaving and see what they say. They may come up with an offer.

Anyway…must get up and at ‘em. Got a couple of things to wrap and drop off at the post office then off to meet friends. Afternoon must be spent listing.

Laters….Cottie

cazmanian_minx

Funnily enough, that's exactly the solution I came up with yesterday afternoon I worked out how much I needed to get for each item to cover the Amazon fees (£1.10 plus 25% of the full price) and if I've managed to figure out their promotions engine correctly, everything goes on sale at 50% off tonight (for some reason it takes several hours to set a promotion live). Anything left the day before the long-term storage fee is due will get put into a disposal order, but hopefully not too much will be left.

I may not leave completely, I may just go back to fulfilling my own orders, but I got so much rudeness and hassle from Amazon customers when I was self-fulfilling that I'm honestly not sure I want them back! Bead-buying customers, on the whole, are a really lovely bunch and I can count on one hand the problem customers I've had through eBay and my own website since 2005. Amazon customers, on the other hand...nightmare. I'm going to put some time into Etsy and see how that goes first. The fees are 3.5% instead of 25% for starters....

cottage_by_the_sea

Glad you’ve worked out a solution Caz. I haven’t had much trouble with River customers – main customer moans are about the high cost of postage as I’m on the standard £2.80 set by the system. I’m trying to find out how to switch over to postage by weight but the button they tell me to click on isn’t on my menu…so more research required. Because of that, I only put higher end items on there that I feel are worth the overall end price to customers.

Whether it’s simply down to higher customer numbers, but I certainly get more problems on the Bay and it’s getting worse as people are using mobile devices to purchase. Buyers seem to just look at the picture and not read the title or description. Then I receive an angry email complaining that they have received a knitting pattern and not the blanket they were expecting…all for £1.50 and 69p postage I may add. I have the words ‘Knitting Pattern’ in the title and every line of my description so it’s obvious they haven’t read any of it. It’s not just the fact that they haven’t read it that is frustrating but their attitude. If I’d received something I wasn’t expecting, I would go and read the listing, think oops and be too embarrassed to contact the seller. I certainly would learn from my mistake and read anything carefully next time.

I’m also finding an increase in scammers on the bay as well. Normally craft buyers tend to be lovely people which does mean you can spot non-typical behaviour and take precautions. My ‘dodgy buyer’ gut feel is finely tuned after 10 years on there, so sometimes I decide to send recorded just because I just sense that this particular parcel is going to get lost.

I’m having a quiet day today. Hubby is going out in a bit with his friend so I’m listing, listing, listing. I’ve knocked £100 off the overdraft already and hunting down any higher priced items I can find.

Remember to slap on sunscreen, a hat and drink loads if you’re venturing out today.

Take care…Cottie.

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July goals: Personal bills £250/250, house bills £1085 / £1050, car insurance £0 / £300, float for August 0/£290. OVERDRAFT £100/£700

cottage_by_the_sea

Hi everybody,

Progress is slow but steady

Financial - put car insurance and stock order on temptress credit card. My active card is nearing its limit and this one had some space so on it had to go.

Sorted friend’s birthday pressie and I might get away with not buying packing supplies until next month so there shouldn’t be any more outgoings for the rest of the month.

There’s a rumour going round that the Bay are changing the shop packages they offer. The basic one is going to include 200 free listings and the middle one will include 1200 free listings. If this turns out to be true (the bay will announce on 30th July) then I think I might upgrade tothe middle level. That’s £120 worth of listings for £59.99 (if my sums are correct). Should give me a bit of encouragement to pull my finger out and expand my shop.

Another reason to upgrade is that you are guaranteed to get through to Dublin support staff. I’ve just acquired some poor feedback from another buyer who didn’t read the listing and didn’t contact me first to sort out before leaving her comment. I emailed her and offered a full refund (incl postage both ways) on return (which I still would have done if she had messaged me 1st) but she hasn’t replied. So frustrating. It’s always the lower value items that cause the most problems – I guess people just can’t be bothered to send back. If this is going to become a regular occurrence then I’ll be needing all the support I can get.

The picture changes are due to be implemented on 1st August which may help…if the buyers can see them easily on mobile devices, that is. Means you can have several free photos per listings.

Anyway…just a quick update as I’d better get back to work/listing.Now that the schools have broken up, I’ll be working almost full time at my voluntary job so must fit business into early mornings and evenings. I know that it seems odd doing voluntary work when I have debt to pay off but it’s the reason for my choice of lifestyle. I love working in the tourism sector but unfortunately the best visitor facing jobs are given to volunteers.

One saying I very much believe in is ‘ if you want something done, give it to a busy person’. I have achieved so much yesterday when I only had the morning free. All the little things that I’ve been putting off for the past few weeks when I’ve had ‘loads of time’…have now been mopped up and complete.I’m hoping that it will encourage me to be more focused on the business as well. That is, if I only have a 2 hour listing window, I suspect I will get more items listed than if I had all day.I may have to delegate post office trips but will see how we go.

Here’s hoping for a fun week and plenty of sales whilst I’m out enjoying the sunshine. I’m ignoring what the weather report is predicting forthe next few days.

Bye for now

Cottie

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July goals: Personal bills £250/250, house bills £1085 / £1050, car insurance paid – on credit card,float for August 0/£290. OVERDRAFT 19/7/13 = -£700. 29/7/13 = -£399

cazmanian_minx

Featured shops get Buy It Now listings for 5p at the moment, so the £59.99 basically buys you the 1200 listings. I think there's going to be a lot of calculator-bashing going on as people try to work out whether it's worth moving up or down a level. The Tamebay blog will probably have a handy concise summary as soon as the authors have got their heads around it properly.

Fingers crossed for some good sales for you - I've had a cracking few days for some reason, this is usually my quietest time of year.

Julie67

Hi Cottage by the sea, just found your diary, mines called I wanna move to the country so we have something in common already.:D
I do lots of ebaying as I have mobility problems although my other half runs his own business.
Thanks for the info re eBay, I'm always trying to work out the best way to keeps fees down.
Good luck with your journey, pop in and see me.

cottage_by_the_sea

Thanks Caz - I'd completely forgot that Featured shop listings were only 5p. Back to the calculator for me.
I guess we'll have to see what the announcement says tomorrow.

Welcome Julie67 - I'll check out your diary. We all moan about ebay but it does provide a gateway for a lot of us to earn a living from home. Have you tried Amazon for selling? I haven't been on there long and it's not my main source of income but does provide an extra boost to the pot. I don't know whether they are still doing it, but they were giving new sellers 3 months of pro-seller subscriptions free. Worth giving it a bash and if it doesn't work out, cancel your subs.

Night night...Cottie