Week 1 of setting up my online business

Wow last week was a whirlwind, so many things I had to do and I got accomplished. It’s hard to believe that I am going to own my own business and that its just days now from actually being off the ground. Wednesday I had to register the name at the county clerk’s office and then apply for my state resale certificate which will enable me to be able to buy from wholesale vendors. I have spent a lot of time researching vendors to supply my business and I have finally came up with a list of 3 that are most likely going to be who I select as my supplier. Once my resale certificate license is in hand I should be able to pull pricing information from them and with that information I will be able to make my best choice as to whom I will select as a supplier.

The next hurdle that I am dealing with is the fact that eBay has restricted my ability to list items and has me set at a $1,000 limit, which seems like a lot of money to deal with, and I don’t disagree, but the problem that I am facing is that I have a variety of items to list and given the variety and the number of items that need to be listed I have reached that $1,000 limit. Under normal business operations this would probably be fine, but unfortunately the business that I have choose cycles through product rather quickly and as a retailer I have to be able to get my items listed as quick as possible in order to capitalize on the best resale value. The example that I have is new releases as I seem to be dealing a lot in the realm of DVD’s and Blu-Ray’s. The faster the item gets listed, the better opportunity I have on getting the best retail value, every day after the movie has been released the resale value on eBay drops as more and more merchants introduce this product and thus cutting prices in to compete with everyone else selling in that marketplace. The ideal situation with new releases is pre-selling before the street date and then shipping on the street date. Being that I do not just sell new releases, the inventory that I have has already caused me to hit the $1,000 limit that eBay has stuck me with and unfortunately everyday that I hover over that limit, my ability to get new release to the market is restricted, thus costing me valuable business as my customers expect me to be able to sell them the item that they are looking for.

Hopefully week 2 will prove much more productive and the issue with eBay will be resolved so that my business can continue to grow, I believe that if eBay does not allow me to become unrestricted, I may have hit a dead end with this business and it may fail before it even really gets started. I am both nervous and excited at the same time and I am hoping for the best outcome.