Ups, Downs, And A Few Panic Attacks

My last day being traditionally employed was in February 2020. It has been over 3 years since I have had a regular job and started my path of being self employed. The first few months was one of the most stressful but, exciting times in my entire life.

Before I left my job, I had already been dabbling with selling on eBay. My Mom of all people is who got me started into thrifting stuff to resell. I had sold stuff on eBay before, but never thought I could find stuff at a damn Goodwill!

So, when I left my job, I was actually leaving to work somewhere else. Long story short, the second job fell through. I hated the job I was leaving so much that I didn’t want to go back no matter what. I was so glad to be getting out of there I had no intentions of doing it again.

I made a decision. I was going to either make it self-employed or die trying…not literally of course. But, I was willing to just eat noodles, skip some bills, let the power go off, whatever I had to do. I wasn’t going back to work period.

You Probably Shouldn’t Do What I Did, But I’m Glad I Did It

The first day waking up being self employed is really something. Its freeing, but also incredibly scary. Its like you are in a free fall. I think its akin to a bird pushing their young out of a nest and seeing if they learn to fly. I felt like I was going to go splat on the ground.

I didn’t have any savings when I left my job. There wasn’t a whole lot of listings on my eBay store either. Less than 100 for sure. The bills were paid, I had some food in the fridge, and thats about it. I did what everyone online tells you NOT to do when you quit your job to start your own business.

I had a few big things going for me though. My house. I own it. Inherited, but I own it. I am incredibly grateful to my Grandparents and Dad for leaving me this home. I also had no debt besides a small car loan that was half way finished. Luckily, my now fiance at the time was working part-time still. So to be honest, it wasn’t all bad.

From DoorDash to eBay: Embracing the Path of Entrepreneurship

I knew I couldn’t sit on my hands all day and wait for eBay sales. Also, I needed to make money so I could buy more products. Luckily, I had recently heard about DoorDash. I watched TONS of YouTube videos about it and what to expect, then finally signed up and received the big red bag.

The first few days I had my mom ride with me. Yeah I’ll admit it. I was nervous and introverted anyway. The cool part about DoorDash was being in your own car listening to music driving up and down the road. I felt like a chill pizza delivery driver except I wasn’t working for the man. I was working for me!

That got old quick. The grind set in and it became a chore to make myself go and do deliveries. A full day of dashing was only bringing $50-$75 or so after expenses. I was still listing on eBay but, the sales weren’t coming through yet.

At this time I was listing more than vintage and antique stuff. I was listing some of my old stuff, video games, and more. I listed a collectable coin from the anime series Tenchi Muyo. I got it in a DVD I bought at Dollar General for 3$ years ago. It was rare and the complete 4 piece set sold for $200 so I listed mine for $50.

I didn’t think much of it until one day I was sitting in a random parking lot waiting for DoorDash orders. It was a very slow day. I was bringing my lunch to cut costs then all of a sudden CHA CHING! That coin sold for full price plus shipping.

I knew in that moment my time was better spent on eBay and not sitting in this car delivering food anymore. I drove home and committed to going full bore into eBay.

The True Slog Begins

At this point, I’m about 3 months in. I am going to a lot more Goodwill’s and thrift stores. My room is slowly filling up with stuff, and I am watching a lot of YouTube trying to learn more about reselling. I’m creeping up to 300-400 listings.

I felt like I was slowly getting the hang of things until one evening I got my first bad message on eBay. It was a customer saying a calculator I sold didn’t work. He wasn’t very happy and had some choice things to say about me as a seller also. My heart sank and I panicked.

I think my ego got bruised the most on this one. What if I was going to get more returns? Can I even afford this? How much money am I going to lose?

Turned out the calculator I sold the customer just sucked. It turned on and worked, but half the keys didn’t. I wasn’t thorough enough in my testing. It was a tough pill to swallow but, I knew I had to do better.

In hindsight the return was a drop in the bucket for the experience of dealing with my first return, and my first angry customer. I learned from it.

That didn’t stop the real scams though. When my eBay account was new I was targeted for the full spectrum of cons. I would research most every message I received that seemed odd just to make sure it wasn’t something I should worry about.

The grind was real. Between batting off scammers, hunting for new inventory, and listing every day this was really turning out to be a full time job.

Plateaus And Beyond

In the first year overall there was a few moments of feeling stuck. I called them my plateaus. It was when things felt like they were stagnating in sales and my routine wasn’t enough to push the needle forward.

These were actually fun moments for me. I’d brainstorm on a new way to get more listings per day. Or I would drop certain type items from my shopping list that took too long to list versus their ROI.

The working ON the store was more fun than working IN the store if you get what I mean. At this point, I was honestly getting the hang of things and getting to a stride.

The thing is, at no point did any of this feel like work. It just felt like my life, and I enjoyed it. This type of work might not be for everyone. I was happier than a pig in dirt

It was the first time in my life I understood something that my favorite philosopher, Alan Watts, said “This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.”