Not long ago I decided to quit my lucrative job at Target to pursue the even more lucrative ebay business.
Well, that may not be exactly the way things worked out. You see, after working as a sales associate and busting my butt for a full year, I found that my job was extremely lacking, thankless, and that I hated the general shopping public more than ever. Oh, and the $.17 raise didn't help either, even after glowing reviews. They even had the gall to tell me that we were all lucky just to be getting raises! Well, thank you recession, and thank you to the multi-million dollar conglomeration who thought that $.17 was actually a raise. More of an insult really...
But, I digress. So, after a couple more months doing soul rotting work, I finally threw in the towel. Why you ask? Why the hell not,
I ask. I liked the people I worked with sure, but I've never been so close to strangling someone than when I worked there. Work retail sometime, you'd understand too. However, I did become a more considerate shopper. Apparently the women's underwear bin seemed to be a perfectly good place to stick a copy of The Sorcerer's Stone to someone.
So, with no job to suck my soul away and give me measly wages in return, what was a girl to do? Why start my own ebay business! Now, I don't really make much money doing it, I actually probably made more working at Target. But, I had something that I hadn't found in a long time: Something I actually loved to do. I picked a category that I was reasonably knowledgeable about, started small, and viola!
It's not always easy of course. I still get rude customers sure, but the pluses outweigh all of the negatives. I am my own boss, I set my own schedule, I am in control, to some degree, of the success of the venture. Could I be doing better with it? Sure, if I put more effort into it I suppose. Not that I don't try hard and do my best to please customers.
There was definitely a learning curve, but you learn as you go, and to me that's the best way to learn; just jump in a get those feet wet, I say! Hell, even after almost a year at it, I'm still learning. Was it as successful as I thought it would be? Yes and no. I make surprisingly more money than I thought I would, but I'm no self made millionaire...yet. I'm still looking for a full time job, but even if I do land the coveted job in this recession, I'll probably still keep ebaying. It's a great way to earn some extra cash and it helps support my hobby of thrifting! And that's a win-win in my book.
