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Home » Business And Finance Articles » Learning From History 5 Common Ebay Mistakes

Learning From History: 5 Common Ebay Mistakes

Errors in Judgment

Certain mistakes are common among eBay sellers, even those with experience. But avoiding them can result in higher close rates and better final prices. Lynn Dralle, of http://TheQueenOfAuctions.com, shares the five top mistakes she sees eBay sellers make:

1. Writing a Bad Title. Look at the keywords other sellers are using for similar items, and use every relevant keyword you canâ€"make the most of your 55 characters! Avoid wasting characters on punctuation, and using come-ons like L@@K to get people's attention.

2. Setting the Wrong Starting Price. Look at lots of Completed Items listings and see what your item is going for. If you start too high, you may lose buyers' interest.

3. Posting an Inaccurate or Incomplete Description. Failure to include the details of your product, such as size, condition, markings, age, or history, will result in numerous questions and emails. And shoppers will feel less confident bidding without having all the information. Make sure to note any damages or defects as well, to avoid many unnecessary returns. People will be more likely to trust you if they see you're honest and up-front right away.

4. Putting Up Bad Photos or No Photos At All. Use a background or shoot outside in indirect sunlightâ€"no one wants to see your living room or your messy desk in the background. If you sell clothes, don't attempt to model them yourself, or put them on your childrenâ€"buy a mannequin. Advises Dralle, "Keep your environment out of it. It makes your auctions look more professional."

5. Putting Up an Auction at the Wrong Time. Both time of year and time of day affect the success of your auction. You won't get a lot of bids for a toboggan if you decide to sell it in August. While if you sell video games, you might find that ending an auction at twelve noon results in a lot fewer of your potential buyers being online than ending it at twelve in the morning.

Sufficient Knowledge

"At the base of all these mistakes is research," explains Dralle. "You've got to do your research." Look at eBay's Completed Items listings, and use their Marketplace Research. Or try a third-party tool like http://Terapeak.com or http://HammerTapNow.com, which can help you figure out the best way to list your items. An informed seller is always going to see more success, more closed auctions and higher profit margins.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Personal vs. Business

Many business owners agree that starting a small business will involve the personal finances of the owner, even though the business may be formally regarded as separate entities. This is probably due to the fact that the business owner may be likely to lose his source of income during the initial operations period, especially during the first 3 to 6 months. With this, adequate planning, budgeting and saving should be done by the business owner prior to starting the business so as to have a pool of funds to support personal expenses.

One of the first steps to do this would be to track your monthly expenses on a daily basis in order to adequately determine your actual personal costs. Be sure to include buffers for emergency or surprise expenses. Once you have a clear idea where your monthly expenses go to, you can then create a budget for the period that your income may be affected. It may also be a good idea to pay off any outstanding debt such as home loans or car loans, so that you have less to pay for during the critical period.

It is of utmost importance that you ensure that you have enough to sustain you, as many new business owners overlook this factor, and end up going back to employment while still maintaining their business after a few months, due to the lack of personal funds.

Apart from that, if you are starting a business for the first time and are in need of obtaining a business loan, the bank or credit union will evaluate your application based on your personal credit rating. This is due to the fact the company's credit history is not yet available for references by these financial institutions. Therefore, the best history that they can base their judgment on your creditworthiness would be the credit history of the business owner.

What is the implication of this? This means if you are planning to start a business and obtain financing for it, it is best for you to run a check on your credit report in the event of errors and flaws. There have been cases where loans were rejected due to an unfavorable credit report, which was actually due to errors made by the system. With this, months may be needed to correct these problems, which may cause delays for the business owner to obtain the required start-up funding for the new business.

In conclusion, the business is a separate entity when it is registered as a private limited company. However, small business owners still may not escape entirely from being regarded as separate entities if they are the only owners of the businesses that they are running. Therefore, business owners should be well-informed on the areas that would require more focus on before they start their businesses.