Wednesday, February 6, 2008

How Things are Going

It's been what, 3 weeks since I was shit-canned? Bah, whatever. I was hoping to retire from the printing industry within 6 months anyway. Since I got in 2 months before another 6 months of unemployment, I should be OK... I hope. It's a little scary doing this whole "no day job" thing, but I am being kept very busy with my eBay business. I am a few days away from becoming a Silver PowerSeller ($5,000 in sales for 3 months), and that as part time. My real goal is to get Gold Status ($10,000) so that I can get my own customer service representative at ebay and stop dealing with all these lunk heads in India.

Heh, funny story. I was in the middle of listing 300 auctions (thats a fucking lot!) and ebay red flagged my account. Someone down there dug into my account history and realized that I had owed eBay $19.00 for *4* years now. So they stopped my listings and said my account was suspended. Of course, I had no clue, they just "did" it. It told them 3 days to respond, took me 5 minutes to fix it, then another 2 days for them to respond back. I went off on them about how I give them over $1000/mo in fees, and they are pissing about $19.00. Oh yeah, so my point was, with a Rep, I could just call him up and have him fix it. I get crap like that all the time with eBay.

While I am very good at running my own business, it is clear that I suck huge nuts at Accounting. I have no clue how much money I am making, or who I owe. I thought I did, but I was mistaken. I am pretty sure I make enough money to supplimanet my income, I just can't prove it. Too much money is coming in, in small chunks, and going out in big chunks.

I have started using a distributor in the USA who I have been getting my inventory from while China has been closed. While i pay him extra, he does what I need, hasn't screwed up any of my orders yet (ok, he did, but it was minor). But mostly, I like the fact that I don't have to spend $2000 in china, wait 2 weeks to get it, then another week to sell it, before I have to do it again. With him, I give him the $2000, but I have merchandise in hand 3 days later. He is also in a position to drop ship for me,if needed, as he has done before.

I've set up a descent account to sell GPS units as well. I can have the drop shipped, and I love that since I don't need to financially fund that project. I will also sell paper. Sounds odd, but it's another idea I had years and years ago. I had found a wholesaler who gives awesome prices about 2 years back. I called him up tonight and pitched my idea to him. He was another person who thinks I'm crazy. Guess he doesn't realize that photographers need special types of paper in special sizes that would otherwise sell for 3 times as much on Epson and Canon's Store. I can double the price, and he can drop ship it. Nice.

I know this is entitled "How I Became Rich". I really should have started smaller. Named it something like "How I Told My Master To Go Fuck Himself After I started My Own Business and Managed To Support My Family On a Fraction of the Cost". Ok... maybe not.

It's true though. My gas usage has dropped from about $180/mo to about $40/mo. All I really do is go to the post office once a day, and stop at the local shops if I need anything on my way back. Likely, my electric is going sky high now though.
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