Chapter 3. Creating a Business Plan

Before you can start your eBay business, you have to determine just what type of business you want to start. Yes, you know that it’s going to involve selling (hopefully lots of) stuff on eBay, but what kind of stuff are you going to sell? And where are you going to get that stuff? And just how are you going to manage the selling and shipping of all that stuff? And, if everything goes well, how much money do you expect to make—versus how much money you have to spend?

When—and only when—you can answer all these questions, you’re ready to start building your new business. Until then, you’re just fooling around. Not that there’s anything wrong with fooling around, of course—that describes millions of typical eBay sellers, most of whom do just enough work to make a little money. But if you want to make a lot of money—if you want to run a true business on eBay—then you have to do your homework and figure out where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.