You have spent your time researching products that sell and wholesale, liquidation or drop-ship sources to obtain them.   Whatever business you have decided upon, you cannot forget that it is a business.  Home based businesses often neglect the value of small business insurance to protect them from both property losses and liability lawsuits.  You shouldn’t neglect this very important aspect of your business.

Notify your current insurance company

Your first step is to notify your personal insurance carrier whether under a homeowner’s or renter’s policy.  It might be possible to add a Home Business endorsement to the policy.  If they say, “No”, don’t despair.  Several companies are able to write home based business policies for less than $1,000 per year, often as low as $500.

Valuing your inventory

Wholesale items are easily valued at invoice, but when liquidation merchandise is being sold, it can be more complicated because the amount you purchased the items for can change drastically every month depending on supply.  As a rule of thumb, you should use the same methods for valuing your inventory for insurance purposes as you do for your bookkeeping.

Liability Insurance

Bodily Injury Liability: If you rent a warehouse or storage unit for your inventory, you should have General Liability insurance to cover any accidents that may happen to third parties on your premises.  This could include the warehouse staff, cleaning crews, your landlord, or delivery people.  Even if you are running your business out of your house, you should carry this insurance.

Products Liability: If you are buying overstock merchandise, you most certainly need Products Liability – you could be held liable for defective merchandise.  Don’t think that the original manufacturer will offer you any assistance.  If you are buying wholesale or drop shipping, request to be added as additional insured to their Products Liability policy.  They should be willing to do so.   If not, consider a different source

Media and Advertiser’s Liability: A common exposure faced by eBay sellers is copyright or trademark infringement, unauthorized use of images or logos, and, heaven forbid, claims of counterfeit merchandise trading.  These exposures do require special coverage that extends beyond even a standard business insurance policy.  To have coverage for these types of claims, you need Media and Advertiser’s Liability insurance. Yes, even one person selling stuff out of their basement can be sued as a publisher, because when you create a page on eBay, which is what you are doing.

Starting an eBay business on a shoestring is hard enough without having to consider yet another expense.  The best course of action in the beginning is prevention: don’t use trademarks, images or logos without permission, be careful what you say about the competition, restrict public access to your premises, and publish solid descriptions and disclaimers of liability on your listings.  As your business grows, you should consider your small business insurance as one of the many expenses of a successful business.

Related Posts:

• 10 Best Ways to Destroy your eBay Selling Business
• Gaining Knowledge & Experience through EBay Selling
• Flailing Real Estate Market Makes Setting Up Shop on EBay Even More Attractive
• The Best eBay Marketing Strategy
• Selling Counterfeit Designer Handbags Is Risky Business

10 Best Ways to Destroy your eBay Selling Business

If you are not careful when you are doing your business in eBay, you will see how easily you can destroy it. In that article I will point the 10 main ways to do that, because that is the best way to learn what you should avoid.

1. The best way to destroy your eBay business is to lie about some of the items that you are selling. IF you make that happen all your customers will hate you for sure.
2. Make sure post all the items that you may have. That way, you will make all your customers contact someone else to find the item that you do not have, but you are offering.
3. Make sure that you will leave your auction ending in the middle of the night, because that way you will not have any customers at all.
4. Do not send any emails with information about your products and the services that you are offering, because you will be wasting a lot of time to do that.
5. Do not sell quality items, but make sure that you will be trying to get the maximum possible profit. That is the best way not to have any customers at all.
6. Never give discounts, because that way you will loose some of your profit.
7. When you are making your listing, make sure that you use a lot of colors and some of the ugliest looking fonts that you can ever find. That you will get the attention of your customers, but for bad.
8. Do not waste your time taking photos of all the items that you are selling, just let all the customers guess what you are selling. That is the best way to keep it a surprise.
9. Do not waste your time writing long descriptions, because you will not have to give so much information to all your customers. Furthermore, you will loose a lot of time too.
10. Make sure that you use reserved auctions, because that is the best possible ways to scare away all your customers. This way you will make them bid on a normal auction for the same item that you are selling, but to another buyer.

If you manage to make only one of those things, you will destroy all the chances of having success in eBay. However, you can use all that information to make your eBay selling career a lot better, so make sure that you will do that.

Ad: Claim the First Time Home Buyers Credit with Turbo Tax

Related Posts:

• Small Business Insurance for eBay Sellers Is Too Often Overlooked
• Selling Counterfeit Designer Handbags Is Risky Business
• eBay Adds New Descriptive Conditions for Many Items
• Some of the Common Tips to make eBay Templates
• 10 Simple Tips to increase your eBay Response

Ship Your eBay items Quickly

Shipping is the one part of your eBay business that you probably find uninteresting and uncreative. You would rather be buying more inventory and creating killer auctions that sell for top dollar quickly. You need to reduce the time it takes to ship your eBay items so you can concentrate on what makes the most money.

The first in reducing the time required to ship your eBay items is to print your postage at home. Begin using a service like Stamps.com, USPS, or PayPal to print your postage before you leave the house for the post office. Having a kit of everything you need to ship an item also reduces the time you would have spent hunting for the necessary packaging and labels.

Have a location and a set time where all you do is focus on preparing your eBay items to be shipped. Distractions will only slow you down and prevent you from getting back to what will earn you more money today. The eBay Waiting Shipping screen can be your best tool to package and ship everything required quickly and without error. Make sure to display photos of the eBay items on the Waiting Shipment page so you grab the right products for the completed auction.

Finally, not going to the post office at all is the best time saver possible. Schedule carrier pickup with the post office ahead of time. You can schedule the pickup time and estimate the number of packages. When the carrier arrives, hand him/her your packages that are already sealed and stamped and wish them a good day.

Try Turbo Tax 2009 or Tax Act 2009 Free Today!

Related Posts:

• eBay CEO Predicts $2 Billion in iPhone Based Auction Sales
• Small Business Insurance for eBay Sellers Is Too Often Overlooked
• How to decide to work part or full time on eBay?
• 10 Best Ways to Destroy your eBay Selling Business
• The Easiest Way to Make Money in Your Spare Time

The Best eBay Marketing Strategy

You have made the choice to start your eBay business along with millions of others and hope you can make enough money to take some nice vacations and possibly leave your job. You found the niche you want to sell products in and now you’re ready to do some marketing. Time is required to obtain a good eBay reputation but planning can reduce the requirement.

Never Done Marketing Before

Marketing is all about getting traffic to your eBay store and auctions so you get the most bids and the best price possible. Brand development through marketing channels is important so buyers feel comfortable when they reach your personally branded store.

Online marketing plans work for stand-alone website as well as eBay stores. EBay can be a launching pad to your own online presence that sells directly to customers without the eBay service assisting you. Keeping your costs to a minimum is the best strategy to increase your profit margins but it might take some investment to get the traffic you need to start your business.

The Steps Needed

Start with Word of Mouth – Tell people you know about your online business by sending them links through email, Twitter, or Facebook. Collect a group of people that are interested in your products and send them a newsletter once a month.

Signature Lines – Create a signature line on your email account so that every email you send will have an image and a link to your store. Create a catchy tag line that you can also make a part of your email signature.

Ask for Feedback – As you sell products on eBay, ask for customer feedback. Your reputation on eBay improves with each positive feedback rating that you obtain. Send out a nice email after your product is shipped to make sure the buyer received the product and approves of its condition. Mention customer feedback to them so they do not forget.

VistaPrint Business Cards – Have business cards developed by an online print company like VistaPrint. Include the business cards in the products that you ship. Hand out the business cards whenever you have an opportunity. And include a business card in letters to companies when paying bills or corresponding.

Customer Rewards – Repeat customers to your store should be rewarded. Develop coupons and offers for clients that return and purchase additional items. Give away shipping or discount shipping for anyone ordering more than one item.

Free Surprises – Include a freebie with each product that you ship. Something small that goes with the product will surprise the customer and make them want to do business with you again. If you can have the gift imprinted with your brand name, logo, and web address, this additional marketing will be extremely inexpensive.

Every step and ideal that you execute will become a part of your overall marketing plan. Increase your marketing budget as your business grows. Don’t rely on just one form of marketing but try new outlets and test the results for best performance. Don’t limit yourself, develop a plan that draws the most attention and traffic to you new eBay store.

Related Posts:

• Small Business Insurance for eBay Sellers Is Too Often Overlooked
• 10 Best Ways to Destroy your eBay Selling Business
• Ship Your eBay items Quickly
• Forget SEO, Click Bank and Pay Per Click Advertisers! EBay Can Keep Your Marketing Strategy Profitable
• 5 eBay Selling Tips