7 years ago
Sunday, March 2, 2014
New item to sell
I stopped off at a garage sale yesterday, was very little there. The lady said that they had sold most of their stuff the day before. I saw a ceramic coaster with a rooster laying on a table, I asked the lady if she had the others in that set. She said she did not and said I could have that one. So I have a coaster to sell, and the best part is the price. You cannot beat free for a price. Now I happen to know that this set will sell for around $10 if all four was there. I am going to put this one up for 99 cents, $2.99 shipping I believe. I will have to weight it first to make sure about the shipping, it may not sell but I have nothing to lose if it doesn't. Eventually I will have items start to sell, then the business will grow a lot faster, right now keep in mind I only have 45 cents for capital :). Anyway, nothing that will set the world on fire, but if one of these 2 items sell it will give me a little more to work with.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Found pennies
One thing I have noticed is, money is all around you. Once you start looking for change, you find it often. I found another penny today, so am up to 45 cents plus the coffee cup that is on ebay. Still no bids on the coffee cup, but I am hopeful. It will be hard to sell the first few items due to feedback score. Eventually someone will come along and want the coffee cup, it may have to be relisted a couple of times. Still keeping my eye out for stuff to buy as well, the field is rather limited with just 45 cents though.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
A couple of pennies found and my first item bought.
I stopped by the car wash this morning, was looking around and found 2 pennies which raised my total capital to 69 cents. Later on in the day I stopped at the local thrift store and starting looking around. Right away I noticed their coffee cups were on sale for a quarter each. I started looking through them and found a beautiful piece of american pottery. It is unmarked, but the design, feel, and USA stamp looks just like McCoy. I am about positive it is a McCoy coffee cup. McCoy is an american pottery company whose pottery is very collectible. Now this coffee cup is not worth a whole lot, maybe $10 at the most. I will start it on auction for probably .99 and shipping + 10% just to make sure I do not lose money on it. Really after feedback as much or more than profit. This should sell quick, may make 3 or 4 dollars profit off of it. Will definitely not lose any. Will post the link to the item page as soon as it is up. So to recap, we are down to 44 cents, and have a coffee cup to sell. Listing For This Item
New Ebay Account Set Up
Armed with the total amount of 67 cents that I have found in the course of my Penny Millions, and a new eBay account with no feedback I am ready to go. I will hopefully find my first item soon. New eBay Account . I linked it here because I wanted to show proof that it is a new eBay account. I have heard many people saying that they cannot sell on eBay because they have no feedback, I will show that to be false. Of course very few people will trust you to buy a $1000 item, but for small items $10 or less most people will not even care about feedback. I could raise my feedback by buying a bunch of cheap stuff and reselling it, but I will do it the hard way by selling. I will let you guys know when I buy my first item and have it up. I am excited about this new project I hope you will all follow me, there will be an eBook to follow eventually.
If it cost 2.00 to ship you would have 1.16 left after all fees and shipping. Be careful when selling low dollar items, you can easily lose money on them. You are looking for an item that you can get cheap, that sells for $5 or more, preferably over $10. So if you find an item that costs a quarter, that sell for 5.00 costs $2 to ship it would look more like this.
7.00
That would give you a profit of 3.79 off of a quarter investmen, or put in another way 1519% profit. That may sound like a lot, but these deals are out there often if you know what to look for. It just takes a little experience and the willingness to look stuff up on ebay and amazon so you can make an educated decision. It will make more sense once I start showing you the items I have bought, what they sold for, what I paid, and how long it took to sell.
At first I will be selling stuff on auction starting out pretty cheap, so I can keep building my capital. Once I hit a certain point, I will start asking more closely to what they are worth and holding longer if needed.
So now maybe you understand the fee structure and what is required to start an eBay business, and some of the costs to expect. Notice I did not mention gas, wear and tear on the car, eating out while getting inventory, there are many small expenses that can get out of hand and cause you to not profit. We will be getting around that by only stopping at a place that we are close by. I will be stopping at yard sales on the way back from taking my son to school, stopping at thrift store on the way to buy groceries, etc. It should cost nothing extra until I get a decent amount of money to buy product with. Then I will start factoring in the other costs.
I hope you are looking forward to following me on this project, if you are please link to me, leave a comment, link me on your social media sites etc. Happy Picking!
Just to remind you where the 67 cents came from, the first step of penny millions is, start looking on the ground for change. You will find pennies often, and the occasional nickel, dime, or quarter. I have even found a $20 bill before. So if you want to follow along start getting change, open up your eBay account, open a pay-pal account, link the paypal to a bank account, then link the paypal to your ebay account and you are in business. It sounds like a lot of hassle but is actually easier than it sounds :).
Good places to look for change
Start wherever you are. You can find change in parking lots of places you normally go, just about anywhere. Better than average places are laundromats, coin op car washes, around the vending machines, in the coin returns of vending machines. I have found a couple of dollars in quarters at a car wash several times. Do not drive out of your way to go to these places, just stop by if you are passing them anyway. Otherwise you will be spending more gas than the change you find. You will get looked at funny for picking up a penny, do not worry about it just smile and go on your way. Most people are too lazy to bend down and pick it up.
Benefits of finding money
Instead of using your own money and worrying that the item will not sell, if you are using found money you will have no worry. It is not your money, you are risking nothing.
Fees and Shipping
If you are selling on eBay with Pay Pal you need to know the fees, you get 50 free listing fees a month with an occasional free listing offer of many more per month. After that 50 it costs a certain amount to list depending on what you are listing. Avoid these listing fees completely till you are doing decent volume on eBay. They also charge a final value fee of 10%. this is charged on the shipping and item price. so if you sell an item for .99 with 2.99 shipping it will cost 40 cents in a final value fee. PayPal also charges a fee, pay pal charges .30 plus 2.9%. So pay pal fees on that item would be 30 cents plus 12 cents. Add those fees together and you get
eBay .40
PayPal .42
Fees Total: .82
3.98 - .82 = 3.16
If it cost 2.00 to ship you would have 1.16 left after all fees and shipping. Be careful when selling low dollar items, you can easily lose money on them. You are looking for an item that you can get cheap, that sells for $5 or more, preferably over $10. So if you find an item that costs a quarter, that sell for 5.00 costs $2 to ship it would look more like this.
Sold for $5 plus $2 shipping.
7.00
- ebay fee of .70
- pay pal fee of .30 plus .21
-shipping 2.00
That would give you a profit of 3.79 off of a quarter investmen, or put in another way 1519% profit. That may sound like a lot, but these deals are out there often if you know what to look for. It just takes a little experience and the willingness to look stuff up on ebay and amazon so you can make an educated decision. It will make more sense once I start showing you the items I have bought, what they sold for, what I paid, and how long it took to sell.
At first I will be selling stuff on auction starting out pretty cheap, so I can keep building my capital. Once I hit a certain point, I will start asking more closely to what they are worth and holding longer if needed.
So now maybe you understand the fee structure and what is required to start an eBay business, and some of the costs to expect. Notice I did not mention gas, wear and tear on the car, eating out while getting inventory, there are many small expenses that can get out of hand and cause you to not profit. We will be getting around that by only stopping at a place that we are close by. I will be stopping at yard sales on the way back from taking my son to school, stopping at thrift store on the way to buy groceries, etc. It should cost nothing extra until I get a decent amount of money to buy product with. Then I will start factoring in the other costs.
I hope you are looking forward to following me on this project, if you are please link to me, leave a comment, link me on your social media sites etc. Happy Picking!
Monday, February 17, 2014
Project No Money Business Start Up
My new project will be starting soon. I will be using money that I have found on the ground, from my penny millions days. I have 67 cents right now that has been found. So I will use that money to purchase something to resell. I will open up a separate E-Bay account to prove that anyone can do this from scratch. If I do not a lot of people will use it as an excuse, well I do not have any feedback so I cannot sell on E-Bay. I do not want to leave any room for excuses :). My plan is to build this into a part time business, the same way I have built my current business. I will keep hunting for dropped change etc. throughout just to add to my capital. I will start out picking at yard sales, thrift stores, etc. And eventually move up to buying from E-Bay to resell and buying wholesale. I will document each step, what I bought, what I payed, what it sold for, shipping cost, gas if it was not on my normal route, Ebay fees, paypal fees, the whole nine yards. When I get enough data I will start writing the E-book, should be an educational journey for us all. I will probably try some Crowd Funding on this project as well. Regardless the things I will be doing are not difficult and anyone can do it. That is the point, keep it simple and help people start a business to make a part time income, or even a full time income. It will not be easy, it will take time, there will be some items that lose money. All the pitfalls will be there, this is not going to be a book full of hype, just a realistic step by step manual for starting an E-commerce business.
Sunday, February 16, 2014
What I learned from Penny Millions and Ebook documenting my Journey.
When I started Penny Millions I never thought it would amount to much. I really had my doubts. I did not succeed in doubling to a million, I could have but lacked the discipline to not spend the money. I have started a couple of times and always ended up spending the money. So was it pointless?
It was not pointless, it changed me as a person and changed my view on making money. If it were not for Penny Millions I would not have started the business I currently have. A business is not something that you have to plan for years before you start. All you need to know is how to sell your service or product, and how much you can produce or procure that product for. You can figure the rest out as you go.
I never would have tried to start this business with no money, I would have made excuses and procrastinated. Those excuses are just ways that you sabotage yourself, if you do not believe in yourself, if you do not believe you can succeed, then your chances of succeeding are slim. You will subconsciously sabotage yourself at every step along the way. Penny Millions will help with that. I recommend that everyone try it, whether you succeed with it or not you will learn a lot.
When I say I started this business with no money, I mean just that. I think I spent 2 dollars on my first purchase. I started out by picking small items that I can get for a dollar or two. And now I have just made my first real wholesale purchase. I am building a relationship with a wholesale supplier and have a couple of more suppliers in the works. We are now an official business, I hope to be incorporating sometime this year and am working on building trade credit for my business. My goals are rather lofty, I aim to build a business worth over 1 million dollars in a year. My business is probably worth around $3000 at the moment, it is tiny, but yet we have somehow managed to survive on its income for the past couple of years. I have recently decided to seriously work on growing, and we are well on the way.
Many people will see the above and think that this is only a pipe dream, how can someone grow a retail business that fast in this economy. We are small, and have virtually no overhead. We can do things the large retailer cannot. My business model is, research, research, research, find that one product that sells well, find a source where I can purchase it cheaply, buy as many of that item as I can, quickly move enough of them to pay for the inventory, find another product, buy as many as I can rinse and repeat.
Do you honestly believe that you will grow your business that fast?
That is my goal, I am going to do everything in my power to reach it. But think about it for a moment. If I aim for a 1 million dollar business, what happens if I fall short? Say I only grow it to a 30k business in a year. Have I failed? Keep in mind all of companies assets at the moment equal about $3000 currently, and I am able to actual live off of the business as it is. How much better will it be when the company has a worth of 10 times what it does now. My goal is 1 million+, call me crazy but I believe it is definitely possible. Is it likely? No, it will be a lot of hard work, and a lot of sacrifice to reinvest the amounts I will need to reinvest to grow it.
With all of the above being said, I will be starting over from scratch soon. I will open a new ebay account, I will start picking with found money, I will document every step of the journey. I will write an e-book that shows exactly how I built my business, it will be a journal / instruction book. There will be no hype, I will document exactly how anyone can start a business with nothing and grow it to a part time income, or even into a full time business. I will show step by step how it is done, and will even list each individual item I bought for resale, I will show how to find a decent wholesaler that you can profit with on ebay. I will also possibly do antique malls or flea markets. I want it to be a very approachable way for the average joe to take a couple of dollars and turn it into a business. I will also document the journey on my blog, the e-book will be clearer and easier to read though. Anyway, exciting times ahead, I am looking forward to the journey. If I have inspired you feel free to donate via the link below:
My RocketHub Project
I hope you guys have a wonderful day, and I hope I have inspired at least one person to go for it, to quit making excuses and make something happen :). If I have inspired you, feel free to link to me on your blog, facebook, or any other place you have on the web. If you link to me let me know, I will visit your site and if it is a good fit I will link back. I hope to be updating this blog on a regular basis so be sure to check back.
It was not pointless, it changed me as a person and changed my view on making money. If it were not for Penny Millions I would not have started the business I currently have. A business is not something that you have to plan for years before you start. All you need to know is how to sell your service or product, and how much you can produce or procure that product for. You can figure the rest out as you go.
I never would have tried to start this business with no money, I would have made excuses and procrastinated. Those excuses are just ways that you sabotage yourself, if you do not believe in yourself, if you do not believe you can succeed, then your chances of succeeding are slim. You will subconsciously sabotage yourself at every step along the way. Penny Millions will help with that. I recommend that everyone try it, whether you succeed with it or not you will learn a lot.
When I say I started this business with no money, I mean just that. I think I spent 2 dollars on my first purchase. I started out by picking small items that I can get for a dollar or two. And now I have just made my first real wholesale purchase. I am building a relationship with a wholesale supplier and have a couple of more suppliers in the works. We are now an official business, I hope to be incorporating sometime this year and am working on building trade credit for my business. My goals are rather lofty, I aim to build a business worth over 1 million dollars in a year. My business is probably worth around $3000 at the moment, it is tiny, but yet we have somehow managed to survive on its income for the past couple of years. I have recently decided to seriously work on growing, and we are well on the way.
Many people will see the above and think that this is only a pipe dream, how can someone grow a retail business that fast in this economy. We are small, and have virtually no overhead. We can do things the large retailer cannot. My business model is, research, research, research, find that one product that sells well, find a source where I can purchase it cheaply, buy as many of that item as I can, quickly move enough of them to pay for the inventory, find another product, buy as many as I can rinse and repeat.
Do you honestly believe that you will grow your business that fast?
That is my goal, I am going to do everything in my power to reach it. But think about it for a moment. If I aim for a 1 million dollar business, what happens if I fall short? Say I only grow it to a 30k business in a year. Have I failed? Keep in mind all of companies assets at the moment equal about $3000 currently, and I am able to actual live off of the business as it is. How much better will it be when the company has a worth of 10 times what it does now. My goal is 1 million+, call me crazy but I believe it is definitely possible. Is it likely? No, it will be a lot of hard work, and a lot of sacrifice to reinvest the amounts I will need to reinvest to grow it.
With all of the above being said, I will be starting over from scratch soon. I will open a new ebay account, I will start picking with found money, I will document every step of the journey. I will write an e-book that shows exactly how I built my business, it will be a journal / instruction book. There will be no hype, I will document exactly how anyone can start a business with nothing and grow it to a part time income, or even into a full time business. I will show step by step how it is done, and will even list each individual item I bought for resale, I will show how to find a decent wholesaler that you can profit with on ebay. I will also possibly do antique malls or flea markets. I want it to be a very approachable way for the average joe to take a couple of dollars and turn it into a business. I will also document the journey on my blog, the e-book will be clearer and easier to read though. Anyway, exciting times ahead, I am looking forward to the journey. If I have inspired you feel free to donate via the link below:
My RocketHub Project
I hope you guys have a wonderful day, and I hope I have inspired at least one person to go for it, to quit making excuses and make something happen :). If I have inspired you, feel free to link to me on your blog, facebook, or any other place you have on the web. If you link to me let me know, I will visit your site and if it is a good fit I will link back. I hope to be updating this blog on a regular basis so be sure to check back.
Learning to Pick
So you have seen American pickers and you want to do what they do. Well... I am hear to tell you it is not at all glamorous. But anyone can make money at it and it is easy to start. I thought about picking for a long time before I started. The reason I never started was analysis paralysis. I started to do research on stuff that sells and the more I learned the more I realized was out there. I thought that I had to be an expert in antiques and collectibles before I started so the project went on the back burner for many, many years. Then something happened. I got my first smart phone and data plan. Now the whole world was at my fingertips most anywhere. Enough about me on to the meat .....
Beginning
Go where the stuff is. Go to yard sales, thrift stores, flea markets etc. Look for items that you like and would buy. Start with your knowledge and then expand over time.
Apps
How do I know what will sell? Easy. Download the E-bay app, do a search of sold items only. When you are out and see an item that you like discreetly search on ebay for the item. Please keep in mind that you will not always get the top price so make sure there is room for profit. I usually have to have at least 5 times what I payed for the item in profit, sometimes I get 30 time what I payed for it.
This is easy I will be a millionaire soon....
I know it seems easy, especially when you find an item that sells for 30 times what you payed, make sure to keep up with gas spent, e-bay fees, shipping etc.. It is also a lot of work, very few ever make a full time living off of it, and the ones that do work like a dog. It can be fun and profitable though, anyone can make a little extra each week with minimal time.
Finding Products
Finding products is the easy part, selling them is what will make or break you. Just because an item has sold in the past does not mean it will sell in the future. I have items that I have had for many months that I cannot give away :). I love picking, it is a lot of fun. I hate the selling part, but it is necessary. Without devoting time to selling you are not picking. You are hoarding. Watch an episode of hoarders to see where that will get you.
I will not give you specific products, or tell you how to sell on e-bay. that part is up to you. The tools I have given you is more than enough to get you started. If you want the money you will take this and go out and make something happen. I did and many others have as well. I believe this is one of the cheapest and easiest part time jobs to start. I hope you get as much enjoyment and profit as I have. It has changed my life, this is what has inspired my business.
Beginning
Go where the stuff is. Go to yard sales, thrift stores, flea markets etc. Look for items that you like and would buy. Start with your knowledge and then expand over time.
Apps
How do I know what will sell? Easy. Download the E-bay app, do a search of sold items only. When you are out and see an item that you like discreetly search on ebay for the item. Please keep in mind that you will not always get the top price so make sure there is room for profit. I usually have to have at least 5 times what I payed for the item in profit, sometimes I get 30 time what I payed for it.
This is easy I will be a millionaire soon....
I know it seems easy, especially when you find an item that sells for 30 times what you payed, make sure to keep up with gas spent, e-bay fees, shipping etc.. It is also a lot of work, very few ever make a full time living off of it, and the ones that do work like a dog. It can be fun and profitable though, anyone can make a little extra each week with minimal time.
Finding Products
Finding products is the easy part, selling them is what will make or break you. Just because an item has sold in the past does not mean it will sell in the future. I have items that I have had for many months that I cannot give away :). I love picking, it is a lot of fun. I hate the selling part, but it is necessary. Without devoting time to selling you are not picking. You are hoarding. Watch an episode of hoarders to see where that will get you.
I will not give you specific products, or tell you how to sell on e-bay. that part is up to you. The tools I have given you is more than enough to get you started. If you want the money you will take this and go out and make something happen. I did and many others have as well. I believe this is one of the cheapest and easiest part time jobs to start. I hope you get as much enjoyment and profit as I have. It has changed my life, this is what has inspired my business.
Growing a Small Business through Crowdfunding
What is Crowdfunding?
Crowd funding is an excellent idea. It allows people to build business capital by getting small donations from many people. It has been around in various forms forever. An instance of this is research used to mainly be funded by a rich patron. This is the same idea yet easier for the average person to take advantage of it. There are a limited number of rich patrons, but an almost unlimited number of people who have an extra dollar or 10 to invest in something or someone they believe in.
How do I get started?
Quite easily. There are many websites out there for this. There are 2 projects I have started one is at rockethub, the other is at fundanything. It is as simple as starting a free account, and following the directions, then publicize it to your network. Some people have raised quite a bit, one company even raised in excess of 10 million dollars.
Does it cost anything?
Yes and No. It does not cost anything to start a project. The website generally takes a percentage of the amount raised, and generally you would offer a reward in the form of a product or service in exchange for someone donating a particular amount. So it does cost a percentage of the money raised, and time, and costs for producing the reward offered. Altogether though there is no risk, no upfront cost. Tell your story in a compelling way and raise capital for anything you need.
For more information and an example of crowdfunding click the following links:
Rockethub
Fundanything
Crowd funding is an excellent idea. It allows people to build business capital by getting small donations from many people. It has been around in various forms forever. An instance of this is research used to mainly be funded by a rich patron. This is the same idea yet easier for the average person to take advantage of it. There are a limited number of rich patrons, but an almost unlimited number of people who have an extra dollar or 10 to invest in something or someone they believe in.
How do I get started?
Quite easily. There are many websites out there for this. There are 2 projects I have started one is at rockethub, the other is at fundanything. It is as simple as starting a free account, and following the directions, then publicize it to your network. Some people have raised quite a bit, one company even raised in excess of 10 million dollars.
Does it cost anything?
Yes and No. It does not cost anything to start a project. The website generally takes a percentage of the amount raised, and generally you would offer a reward in the form of a product or service in exchange for someone donating a particular amount. So it does cost a percentage of the money raised, and time, and costs for producing the reward offered. Altogether though there is no risk, no upfront cost. Tell your story in a compelling way and raise capital for anything you need.
For more information and an example of crowdfunding click the following links:
Rockethub
Fundanything
Sorry Have Been Away For a While
Hello guys, I am sorry I have abandoned this blog. I have fallen away from the path. I am no longer doing penny millions per say, but I am definitely still going and have not lost the dream. I have started a business with very little money. I started by buying products at yard sales and reselling them. Picking is what most people would call it. I still do a fair share of picking and am doing quite well at it, my business is currently moving on to the next step and that is buying wholesale to sell retail online.
We are now an official business and I have relationships with one wholesaler, looking at a few more suppliers. My goal now is to grow this business to be worth more than a million dollars in one year. I know it is a lofty goal but I believe with a lot of hard work it can be done.
So where am I currently?
This business is my sole source of income currently, I have purchased my first products wholesale and will be selling them soon on E-Bay. After things die down a bit, I may start another project similar to penny millions. An eBook or maybe even print book is in idea stage, may pursue it in the next year or so. It will be a book showing how to build a business from nothing.. I will be doing every step and documenting everything along the way. So it will be part journal of the journey, highs and lows and an exact blueprint on how I did it. Like I said it is still in idea stage not sure if I will pursue it yet, my business has been keeping me rather busy at the moment so we will see what the future brings. I would like to think everyone for the support, for reading my blog, and sending encouragement. I will be updating more as time goes by. Hopefully I will have time to post more often.
We are now an official business and I have relationships with one wholesaler, looking at a few more suppliers. My goal now is to grow this business to be worth more than a million dollars in one year. I know it is a lofty goal but I believe with a lot of hard work it can be done.
So where am I currently?
This business is my sole source of income currently, I have purchased my first products wholesale and will be selling them soon on E-Bay. After things die down a bit, I may start another project similar to penny millions. An eBook or maybe even print book is in idea stage, may pursue it in the next year or so. It will be a book showing how to build a business from nothing.. I will be doing every step and documenting everything along the way. So it will be part journal of the journey, highs and lows and an exact blueprint on how I did it. Like I said it is still in idea stage not sure if I will pursue it yet, my business has been keeping me rather busy at the moment so we will see what the future brings. I would like to think everyone for the support, for reading my blog, and sending encouragement. I will be updating more as time goes by. Hopefully I will have time to post more often.
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