Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

tsharp

Wow, 80% of your gross is expenses!

cazmanian_minx

tsharp wrote: »

Wow, 80% of your gross is expenses!

Yup, that's why I want to get my website open ASAP! At the moment I'm paying eBay £800 a month, my website costs me £19.99 + VAT - what I want to do is put fewer items on eBay (just my absolute best sellers) and bag-stuff every order I get through there with a flyer that has a discount code for my website. The more business I can put through my own website, the better.

Caz

Kaz2904

When's the internet buisness going to go live?

cazmanian_minx

Kaz2904 wrote: »

When's the internet buisness going to go live?

Well, I've got a big message on the site saying 'Opening in November', but November is sort of slipping away...

It's all done, I just need to finish creating all the products and put the correct stock amounts in. I've been holding off opening it until it's 'perfect', but I think it's never going to be perfect, so I'm going to make sure I've got stuff in every category and then just go for it and keep adding stuff as I get time.

I've made an executive decision not to take on any new product lines for the rest of the year, so when today's stock delivery arrives (probably in a couple of hours' time), it's just a question of sorting it and updating stock quantities on eBay, then I can get cracking on the site (unless the transcription job arrives, in which case I have to do that instead).

So, hopefully this weekend

Caz

PS: £1,350 since Monday morning now :eek: That's the same as the whole of last week in 4 days :eek: :eek:

Kaz2904

Well if you are managing to get this sort of intake, just think how much better off you'll be with your new lower overheads!
I like the way that you are going to advertise through your ebay sales but have you made up a banner to go onto your ebay pages?
I very often go to peoples own advertised web pages from ebay in search of lower postage costs for bulk buying.
It's very exciting, I can't wait to seee it!

setmefree2

Wow!:money:

tsharp

Caz, how many hours do you reckon you put in doing the ebay business, say compared to a 9-5 ratrace job?

cazmanian_minx

tsharp wrote: »

Caz, how many hours do you reckon you put in doing the ebay business, say compared to a 9-5 ratrace job?

Oh crumbs, tricky one.

In my old job (in charge of card fraud prevention for a major retail website) I was leaving the house at 7.20am and getting back around 6.45pm. I couldn't take holiday from the beginning of November to the first week of January and would normally work 6 or 7 day weeks from the last week of November through to the last posting date.

Now I start work around 9, spend the morning pootling around internet sites whilst doing the packing up, have a break at 12 to raid the fridge, print off any morning orders at about 12.30, pack those, toddle down to the post box at the end of the road (or if I've got special delivery or international signed for to go, then up to the post office) and spend the rest of the afternoon either listing stock, counting stock, photographing stock, doing transcription or doing !!!!!!all . I knock off whenever my boyfriend gets home, which is usually between 4 and 5. I do a quick pack up on Saturday mornings and drop it in the box to catch the midday post if I'm not off visiting friends or family, but Saturday afternoons and Sundays are free.

I've never actually sat down and worked out my hourly rate, but it's above minimum wage and my quality of life has improved significantly now I don't have to spend 2 hours+ each day commuting in and out of central London.

Caz

tsharp

Cheers, that last paragraph is the important part.

Do you get plenty of time to write?

cazmanian_minx

tsharp wrote: »

Do you get plenty of time to write?

I would do if I didn't spend so much time on here, Motley Fool, Facebook, Livejournal....!

I've hit a rut with it where I think everything I write is trite and childish, so I end up getting 400 words into a short story and then deleting it in a fit of despondancy. I think I probably need to step away from the romance/womens magazine genre for a few months and write something completely out of character - I adore crime novels as well as romance/chick-lit, so might try a few crime short stories instead.

I need to pick up the habit again though, as I've got out of the daily groove. Next week's not great for starting again, as OH is on holiday, but I'm going to put aside 30 minutes at the same time each day for writing and see what happens.

Caz