3 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming a Reseller

Hello my amazing reseller friends! Have you ever accomplished, embarked upon, or thought about taking up some new job, task, or commitment? Well, reselling can be all three of those things, and I’m here today to talk about the 3 things to know before reselling that stand out to me most now as a full-time reseller, that I wish I would have known beforehand.

1. Buy in Bulk (Keep your costs down!)

This is a big one, which is why I’m making it first. If you don’t actively keep your costs down, you’re likely to overspend without even realizing it. Then, one day you’ll be catching up your charts, (that you’re way too far behind on)…thinking holy cow I bought a lot of inventory!

The painful part about it is, that the more you start selling, the higher your expenses will likely go. But if you’re just starting out, or haven’t been able to invest in higher end items at all, make sure you’re doing your best job to keep your costs down in every way, shape and form.

Friends are changing out their closet for the season? Perfect! Offer them a bulk price to off load onto you, or maybe you’ll get lucky and they’ll hand it over free of charge! Can I get a heck yeah for some *Pure Profit?*

Perhaps your local mom and pop thrift store is having a big sales day. Sure, there may be some amazingly long lines to wait in, but here’s a quick tip.

Take a bunch of pictures of items that need to be listed the day before. Go to said sale. Act like a crazy woman and throw all resell-worthy items into cart. Get in that checkout line before it’s way too long. Check for flaws while waiting for your turn, or whip out those pictures to start uploading as drafts! Use all the pockets of time that you’re able to, and you will easily succeed.

Related: Think You Don’t Have Time to be a Reseller?

Bulk buy at your local bins or church sale, and find some affordable yard sale peeps who are willing to negotiate a bundle deal. By keeping these costs low, you’ll be able to reinvest more back into your business in more effective ways.

2. Know Your Numbers (But don’t get crazy about it)

A lot of times, it’s absolutely essential to know your numbers to a tee. As true as that is, you may not want to spend too much time on this, because it may burn you out faster than you’d like it to. (I speak from experience here!)

Reselling is not just a commitment 24/7, it’s a real job.

Like, with accounting and taxes and all those fun number charts no one really likes to do all that much…except for Amber Resells. That girl loves her numbers. And you should totally pop over to her channel to learn the best way to chart out your sales, expenses, and more.

She has dozens of videos going into great detail on how to create, maintain, and chart your way through to achieve that reselling nirvana. Her videos have not only helped me to becoming a reseller to begin with, but also shows the fun times, rough patches, and all that goes along with working for yourself.

At first, it pays off to chart every little thing about your business. It’s helpful to learn and grow with the knowledge that you can use for future expenses, thrift trips, etc.

However, once your business gets up and running, those charts can get seriously overwhelming. And unless you have a Doris, (my incredibly amazing and wonderful VA that assists me on the backend), I suggest you start condensing your charts into one easier to follow one…so that you don’t end up like me playing catch up months later.

• Related: Are You Still Running Your Reselling Business Solo?

Keep up with them on a daily basis and you won’t fall behind. It will be much easier to recall which items received partial discounts, refunds, were on sale, etc., within days time instead of weeks or months time.

If you don’t know your numbers, you won’t be able to know if you’re coming out on top. Being profitable is the whole reason most of us resellers do what we do, and so if this chart isn’t going in the right direction, you’re going to need to figure out how to change it. 

3. Find a System (And stick to it!)

Routine is everything. Both in life and business. Of course, doing the same thing day in and day out can get hella boring, but most times it’s necessary to keep order in and chaos out.

If you want to try out a few different ways or places to take photos, by all means, do that! If you want to try 3 different poly mailers and 14 different thank you stickers to match your cards, do that, too!

However, don’t get too caught up in all the tasks. The more time you take (yes, even seconds), on frivolous, irrelevant tasks throughout the day, the less work you will get done and the more it will drag out unnecessarily.

Find a good system that works best in your space and with the tools that are required, and then DON’T CHANGE IT. If it works for days, weeks, months, that’s a surefire sign that you’ve got something good going on.

In addition, eBay amongst other platforms, (but particularly eBay because their algorithm is super finicky), don’t like it when things keep getting changed up every other day.

Stick to one routine for your photo setup, your shipping setup, and your listing order, and you’ll make the process ridiculously easy to follow for anyone else that joins in and for yourself moving forward.

***Follow these 3 things before beginning your reselling career, and you’ll know better how to become more efficient in your processes, and essentially, a better reseller because of it.

• Related: Reselling Was Never My Dream Job.

Thank You for reading 3 Things to Know Before Reselling!

A giant thanks to everyone that has supported me this far into my journey and for reading 3 Things to Know Before Reselling! I greatly appreciate you returning to read my posts hope that you will continue to drop by in the future.

Please feel free to drop any comments below that you would like to add! I am always open to advice, suggestions, or even hearing related stories of your own!

I stay as active as possible in the comment section, therefore I will reply to any questions asap.

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Happy selling friends!

-Shelby

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