Two years ago, I decided to try and create an eBay business. I suppose this was out of necessity as I had just moved into a new apartment and I wanted more money to actually have a life! I already used eBay a lot and so knew how it worked. The main thing I was tasked with was what to sell.
I looked into loads of wholesalers and spoke to discount stores to secure big orders if I needed them. These didn't work out too well as the discount store items didn't sell (because everyone else could get them at the discount store!), and the wholesalers wanted a big order, something that I couldn't afford.
I then had the idea of, rather than trying to find value in a product and increase it, finding something with no value, and giving it some! I had to make a new product of my own.
This is when my idea came to me. I have always been pretty good with Photoshop and love to design on my laptop, so I created some designs intended for t-shirts. I then bought, on eBay, some t-shirt print paper that I could just stick in my printer. I bought the paper in bulk so got around 50 sheets for around £8 if I remember rightly. The idea was that I would print my designs and people could buy them and iron them on to a t-shirt. Sounds simple right? The truth is, it is simple to make a new product. You just need the idea, and the components.
Let me tell you, they sold rather well. I was making an extra £15 per day profit from this extremely simple business. It's not a fortune by any means, but we are talking about an extra £420 every 4 weeks. Not bad to say it's just extra cash made in my spare time.
Remember, all I had to do was create some initial designs, list them on eBay and print on demand. I would come home from work on an evening and hit the print button, stick them in envelopes and post in the morning. On average, I would sell around 6 design transfers per day.
That was my simple business. I had to let it fade out as I started focusing on Android app programming, something else that proved profitable, creating value from nothing. I'll talk more about that in another post as that's an example of how to make a new product from nothing, rather than adding value to existing things.
All I did here was to think of a way to add value to what I already enjoyed. I loved to design on Photoshop, so I found a way to add enough value so that people would want to pay for the designs. I made the designs useful by giving them a function. I'm sure there are other ways I could have done this, but t-shirt transfers worked for me.
Here are some action steps...
Make a list of things that you enjoy doing and things you are good at. If something meets both of those points, then it's ideal to make a new product from.
Next, find a way to add value. How could you make people want to pay for your skill? Can you give it a function, or turn it into a service?
Once you have decided on what to do, get it out there on eBay or make a simple WordPress website. Find your skill, add value and get it in front of people.
It really can be as simple as that. Most importantly, take action!
Chris is the founder of sociableenvy.com, a community of people interested in personal development and interpersonal skills. Chris also created ' The Achievement Toolkit ', a very popular, free guide on how to reach success.
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