questions about setting up an ebay business

superspurs18 · 15 April 2014 at 11:32AM

pinkpansies wrote: »

I sell on ebay as a self employed sole trader. It is very difficult these days to make money on there but it is possible. As someone mentioned above, ebay, royal mail and paypal make more profit than I do.

I used to keep spreadsheets but it was too time consuming. Now I find printing out just the ebay invoice and monthly paypal download along with a couple of other reports is all that you need as well as bank statements. I started off at first with an accountant who showed me how to keep accounts but I was told I didn't need an accountant as it was easy enough for me to do my accounts myself as my business is very tiny! I find it easy enough, even the dreaded tax return once a year but it is also very tedious and time consuming to work everything out.

I used to buy from wholesalers til I found out prices on ebay were cheaper than the wholesalers (I sell in a different category to what you were planning on selling in) and now I buy all my stock off ebay in job lots and resell them on there individually

thanks for the info, i wouldn't necessarily have my bank account involved - it would just be paying in and out through paypal. aslong as i kept a 'sales' & 'cost' spreadsheet just using paypal wouldn't negatively effect me would it?

thanks.

Mistral001 · 15 April 2014 at 1:38PM

It is rare that you can keep one account just for business if you are a sole trader. There will be times when personal expenses unconnected with the business will come out of that account and also there will be times that you pay for expenses connected to the business by other means. Best to keep a set of books which records all transactions to do with the business in one place.