Sparkplugging is starting a new tradition called ‘Spark an Idea Thursday’. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

The theme of this week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is: Spark An Idea that Will Keep You Motivated This Summer!

This is a really good one! Here’s what Michelle had to say about staying motivated in eCommerce:

Staying motivated in the summer is usually not that hard for me. It’s nice and sunny outside, warm, and I just feel more motivated in general. And I have more help around the house with my kids home from school, so I can work in my projects while they are doing their chores.

However, it is easy to get sidetracked with ball games, camping, doing stuff with friends, so here are some things that I do to keep me motivated, and that I think can help any online business owner.

1. Plan and implement projects for my business. Orders, in my industry, tend to slow down during the summer. People are offline, spending time with their kids and not on the computer. They’re going outside and generally enjoying the nice weather. So this is time to create that new information product, build that new website, or work on that new business model. For example, I just finished revamping my website hosting packages and consolidating several websites. My current project is creating full service website development, maintenance and promotion packages for Oklahoma women-owned businesses.

2. Set realistic goals. I tend to be optimistic, generally speaking, and in setting my goals for the summer. I think I’m going to get all these projects done — revamping websites, writing blog posts, updating software, etc. But it IS summer and I have to remind myself that I need a break. So I cut back on client work, focus on building my business during this slow time, and make sure I don’t bite off more than I can chew over a given period of time. For example, I don’t schedule 10 blog posts in one week. Instead, I’ve consolidated several websites and now only need to write two thought-provoking posts and two newsy and short posts. Woo!

Just remember — if your business cycle is like mine, and this is your slow time, be easy on yourself and take a break. But also take advantage of the slow time. If this is your busy time, then bookmark this page and come back for inspiration when your slow season arrives.

Awesome, Michelle!

For me – with eBay on my mind 24/7, I’m constantly thinking of what to sell the next season. I know from experience that while specializing in clothing – you HAVE to know the latest trends, and keep up with what the retailers are pushing off of their racks.

It’s idealy a perfect time to shop for any off season clearance items and get ready for back to school sales!  Summer is generally slow if you sell clothing on eBay as well, so what perfect time to catch up on how you want to improve your business in the up and coming busy times.

Of course with a new baby in the mix, and a 6 year old on my heals – making the time for everything is going to be a challenge.  One thing that I always have to keep in mind is that working from home is going to always warrant me to work on my terms!  It’s a wonderful thing to be your own boss! 

I stick to a very strict schedule, making sure to leave any extra time for those unexpected interuptions.  It’s also important to put time aside for yourself and your family so you don’t get too overwhelmed.  You’ll feel refreshed and ready to go when you make sure your time is wisely planned. 

When mommy is happy – everyone is happy!    Have a productive Summer!

Sparkplugging is starting a new tradition called ‘Spark an Idea Thursday’. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

The theme of this week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is: Spark An Idea that Makes A New Business Ally.

Michelle & I have combined forces this week to bring you some of our ideas relating to eBay & eCommerce:

1. Providing an excellent product and customer service. This works whether you’re selling physical or digital products or a service. For example, I recently moved a client to my servers — a client who services a target market similar to mine. In doing so, and going above and beyond what many other hosts provide, I was able to make an ally out of the new client. We are planning to work together on some future projects.

2. Stop by and say hello. Sometimes just being friendly, particularly when the other business owner is local, can form an alliance. For example, I saw one of my ecommerce clients at a local festival about a week ago. We chatted about the products she sells and about how things were going for her at the festival. We are planning to have lunch together soon. This is a stepping stone on the way to building a business relationship.

You can do this at trade shows (remember to be courteous to those who are trying to sell their wares, by not hogging all their time), networking events, local festivals, or even the grocery store.

3. Find a niche that compliments yours – and cross promote each other.
There are a ton of eBay tools that you can use to help you work smarter, not harder. If you can find something that works for you, spread the word! There are a ton of mom owned businesses that love to help other moms and by doing this you will BOTH benefit.  For example, keeping track of your eBay sales is very important when you want to know your progress from year to year. I came across Easy Auctions Tracker – and have just fell in love with her spreadsheet for tracking eBay sales. I got in touch with her and we are now promoting each others business. It’s a win-win!

4. Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up!  Communication is a big, big part of a successful business. Having contact with a customer before, during and after an eBay sale will leave a lasting impression that is sure to give you repeat business. Word of mouth moves faster than you think! Having a positive impact on someone will ensure that you will have new customer contact. In turn your e-business can only grow from there!

Let’s hear your ideas, we’d love to have some comments on how you benefit from a new Business Ally!

Sparkplugging is starting a new tradition called “Spark an idea Thursday.” As part of this tradition, I’ll be sharing with you my experiences and interpretations for each week’s topic for those of you who sell products or services online.

I invite you to grab our image over there to the right and carry the tradition through to your own blog. If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

So, let’s get started with the topic at hand: Spark an Idea that Entertains the Kids while you Work!

I’ve been training myself for or running a web hosting, design and ecommerce business for more than 7 years now. I started when my son was less than a year old and continued through a pregnancy and birth of my daughter. He’s 9 and she’s 6 now. So I’m going to break this down into age groups.

Babies

If you’re nursing, babies are easy. Just buy a Boppy Pillow and make yourself comfortable in your office chair. You can type while your little guy (or gal!) is nursing and napping. I did some of my best work done this way and actually built the foundations of my business while nursing babies. I did cut my hours back as much as possible during those early baby months, making sure I napped with my baby and followed his or her schedule.

Toddlers and Preschoolers

This is where it gets more challenging. Toddlers have very short attention spans and are still very much attached to you. Depending on your child, you may be able to put some interesting toys in front of them and keep them entertained long enough to answer a couple of emails or work on a few orders. My son, Chris, would be entranced by anything mechanical, or that he could take apart. He loved his cars and toy hammers. (I had to watch him closely or he’d get out Daddy’s screwdriver and start taking things apart that he shouldn’t… We used to joke that if we blinked for two long, he’d have the TV in pieces…LOL!)

My daughter, Aimee, on the other hand, was very talkative. (And still is!) Toys were not going to hold her attention long. She wanted to be in my lap, doing what I was doing, and yakking about it the whole time. She’s also the one who thought she could nurse upside down and then take off across the room. Ouch! With her, I just had to take more breaks to give her the attention she needed.

Elementary School

The one nice thing about homework is, it gives me a little extra time to finish my work after the kids come home from school. We live 15 minutes from the school, so we talk about how things went that day on the way home. At home, Chris does his homework and Aimee has her afternoon snack. Then we start working on chores. Sometimes, my chores involve work. Imagine that!

Now that they’re in school, I have from 8 am to 2 pm to concentrate solely on my work. Once we’re done with homework and chores, we usually end up outside playing (we’re a baseball family so this often involves playing catch and practicing batting) or watching some of our favorite TV shows. Or going to ball games. Or going to church.

Final Thoughts

In any age group, it’s important to have help from your family. My husband, in our kids’ early years, would come home from work and entertain them while I finished up a project. Now that they’re older, he’ll supervise while they play outside, riding their bikes or kicking a soccor ball around.

I also discovered the beauty of virtual assistants. If you have someone who understands your business, and who is capable of handling customer support or order fulfillment or blog writing, whatever you need help with, she can take a load off of you, giving you the time to spend with your kids.

So, those are my thoughts. Tell me, what are your ideas for entertaining your kids while you work?

Sparkplugging is starting a new tradition called ‘Spark an Idea Thursday’.  Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers.  We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog!  If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

The theme of this week’s Spark an Idea Thursday is Spark an Idea to Entertain the Kids While You Work.

This is probably going to be one of the toughest challenges for many new moms starting out on eBay.  Every child is different.  There are going to be different work schedules for each of us.

My oldest is now six.  Raising her while working from home is something I’ll never regret and something I’m going to treasure forever.

While I was learning my daughter’s schedule, I adapted into when I could work and not work.  As an infant, her naps in between feedings were my time for eBay frenzy.  Try these tips and let me know what you think!

First thing is first…

Make a To Do List:

It’s a MUST HAVE as a new mom.  I don’t know what happens to our brain cells when a baby is born, but suddenly forgetfulness is at the top of the list.  Let’s face it; lack of sleep has a lot to do with it.  Making a list will guarantee you have something to accomplish each day.

Patience Is A Virtue:

Remember, your main goal for being at home, is to be at home for your children.  If you are in the middle of a photo session and the baby needs to be fed…feed the baby!  Happy Baby = Happy MommyJ.  It’s one of the beauties of working from home.  You can do it at your own pace. You are your own boss!

As my daughter grew older, learning independent play was a blessing in disguise.  She would be right next to me in my office with her toys.  Although I wasn’t constantly interacting with her every second, I could be there if she needed me.  She was always content and happy with plenty to stimulate her mind.

The Toddler Years:

Ah, yes. The toddler years seem to come fast, don’t they?!  It may actually work to your advantage!  Now, they are able to follow direction and want to be mommies helper at all times!  Hey, let them help!

Share the photographing:

We have a spare camera that is here to ‘help mommy’ take pictures.  It’s been a real help when I have to get some things to auction on eBay and the little one is determined to help.

Stickers and Balloons:

I don’t know what it is about the two that just fascinate kids!  You know those small helium tanks you can get at the party store?  They come included with a bag of balloons and stickers that contain funny faces.  It’s amazing how long a toddler will stay occupied when you blow up a few balloons and let them go crazy with a sheet of stickers!  The helium tank lasts a long time, definitely something to use again and again!

Be Flexible:

I have to mention that we recently welcomed a new baby girl into the world!  I’m using all my ‘tricks’ from when my oldest was born to occupy her during the day while I eBay.

Of course, I’m finding out she is totally different than my oldest!  She requires a lot more attention during the day.  That’s fine with me, because I know I can shift my schedule around as needed.  Instead of being an early bird, I’m becoming a night owl.

I’m sure there will be new tricks to be shared with her as she grows, that I will pass along to you!

The answer is, “Absolutely.”

But between you and me, you can make so much more than a living on eBay. You can make a life.

Hold on tight, because it can be quite the ride. Allow me to share with you the latest twists and turns on my very own eBay roller coaster…

The last time I wrote about eBay was in November, right as the holiday sales season was amping up. I found myself so busy with my eBay store that I had to step away from my eBay Selling for eParents channel at eMoms at Home, the previous version of our current Sparkplugging. Even having hired part-time help to assist in wrapping and shipping, I was absolutely swamped with eBay work from the moment I woke up until the moment I went to bed.

I had to drop everything, including my personal blog, and hunker down with all things eBay.

Unfortunately for our lovely Sparkplugging host, Wendy Piersall, about the time that the holidays wrapped up was exactly the time that my offline life took on, well, a life of its own. All within days of each other, I lost a family friend, gained temporary responsibility of his son, permanently crashed my computer, and insanely began the process of buying our first home since losing utterly everything in Hurricane Katrina.

I was quite happy to not even hear the name “eBay” whispered in my presence, I was so overwhelmed.

Funny how life works. As it turns out, the sole reason we were ultimately able to purchase this longed-for home is because of one tiny, ubiquitous word: eBay.

As it turns out, an eBay store is considered a viable job by some mortgage lenders. Some very large and respectable mortgage lenders, in fact. Furthermore, based on my credit and my eBay records, my family was able to secure a sound mortgage based on my eBay store income alone.

Had you told me two years ago that I could turn a case of baby lotion into a home for my family, I would have laughed. I would have rolled my eyes. I would have written you off as an infomercial hack.

But that is precisely what I did.

And you can do it, too.

So many months later, I find myself back online, understanding the in’s and out’s of this business better than ever. While I am still unpacking in our new home, I am preparing to relaunch my eBay store and see where I can take it this time.

You up for the ride?

This time around, our eBay channel will be more all-encompassing as an eBay and eCommerce channel, co-authored with Kristie McDonald, the owner of Nitro Toyz. While I will most probably spend most of my posts sharing personal stories and experiences, Kristie will finally deliver what you have been asking for all along: the nuts and bolts how-to of eCommerce.

In the meantime, for those looking to catch up, a few of my favorite eBay posts so far (imported from eMoms at Home, so the formatting may be a bit funky, but the content is still solid):

Tell Me About Your Big eBay But…

Savvy eBay Sellers Think Like Customers First. Savvy?

eBay Sellers and Completed Listings Search: Best Friends Forever

Deal or No Deal? Will it sell on eBay? Volume 1.

eBay Marketplace Research. The third wheel to you and your Completed Listings Search dynamic duo.

*********

Caught up on the highlights, so far? Look, here’s the main point:

If you treat selling on eBay as a job, if you approach it professionally, but also personally and with humor, you can make a living on eBay. And that living can free you to live your life.

Take a deep breath and believe yourself when you say, “I can make real money on eBay.” And then hold on to your seats… Or throw your hands above your head and just scream. Everyone has their own roller coaster riding style, after all.

Adrenaline rushes and the excitement of the crowd carries you away. You get a little bold and decide that you’ll start cutting your pit stops short, really pull ahead of the competition. Your pit crew suggests you need to change your tires and you breeze through, taking only enough gas to make it to victory circle.

If your house is anything like our house, you’ve watched Cars more times than you can count and you know what happens to Lightning McQueen next…

Your tires blow. With the finish line in sight, you still lose. At best, you tie.

Just call me Lightning McQueen.  Of course, you know how that movie ends, right?  Sweeter victory than even Lightning knew he wanted.  I just have to get there.

Since deciding that it was time to get my “game face on,” I have been reorganizing my eBay business.  In preparation for holiday sales and armed with more html know-how than I had when I last worked on my store, I have had a lot of revamping to do.  As mentioned before, I more or less put my eBay store on hiatus the last number of months while I focused more on my own blog and a handful of other side projects.  Unfortunately, because I never took the time to truly reorganize everything and streamline it, I never fully realized how overextended I had become.

It’s the side projects that get me every time.  The “sure, I’ll do it” promises.

I appreciate your patience while I have been only sporadically posting here at eMoms at Home and assure you that I am in the process of revamping my efforts here, as well.  I’m looking to bring in more of the how-to stuff and maybe even some of those obligatory Top Ten lists.  I know I said I wouldn’t, but that seems to be what you want…  I hear ya.  All the best in one place?  A mix of the technical and the personal?  Step-by-step instructions and the gestalt?  If you want it, I’ll find a way to get it to you, even if that means bringing in a little help.

In the meantime, this is a great opportunity to answer some relevant questions you have sent in regarding, among other things, the great shuffle and juggle we as work-at-home parents are constantly doing.

Right now, I am still repaving the road in Radiator Springs.  But, just like Lightning McQueen, I’m making some great friends and discovering in them the ideal pit crew.  Look for answers to many of your submitted questions and suggestions tomorrow.  See, I’m holding myself accountable to you!

eMoms at Home.  The best pit crew an eParent could want.

What I did not fully anticipate is the degree to which this platform at eMoms at Home would be different from my personal blog, Velveteen Mind. I am exposed to an entirely different audience, and as such, exposed to very different interpretations of what I write. Understandably, this also opens me up to misinterpretation.

I love a challenge. So let me clarify. I’ll quote myself from Burnout and Fear of Succes for the Work-at-Home Parent:

“This may sound strange, but I fear that I may have enjoyed too much success too soon. I became complacent. The challenge dissipated and the fun went with it.”

Selling on eBay did not “become work” and I then scurried into a hole and cried over not having fun anymore. It had always been work. I had always treated it like a job. I handled it like a business from the beginning.

The problem was that I was too good at it.

I became complacent when it became too easy. When the challenge dissipated, the fun consequently went with it. The fun was the challenge. The fun was the work.

Perhaps that is why I engage in a bit of self-sabotage. Perhaps that’s why we all do, based on your comments and emails. If we can make it just a little harder on ourselves, create just enough trouble for ourselves, then it will be a challenge again. We will be tested again. We will have fun again, seeing what we are capable of and how far we can take it.  How far we can push it.

I welcome work. I love a challenge.

Opening myself to misinterpretation by an unfamiliar audience may have been the best thing I have done so far. Ignorant comments and shallow characterizations have proven to be invigorating. Huh.

Some of my best moments are immediately preceded by my being antagonized into saying, “Oh heellll no!  I know you just didn’t.”

I love a challenge.

My house is now clean.  My office is in order.  My stock is re-inventoried.  My packing supplies are lined up.  I have hired part-time help to keep up with my shipments for me, the one bit of monkey work that I just hate doing.  I am revamping my store and templates.  I am reorganizing and streamlining.  I am rarin’ to go.  In short, my fire is reignited.

Get your game faces on, sellers.  It’s time to play.

Impressive. The number of insults in the full comment, coupled with the ignorance displayed, was simply entertaining.

Rather than be offended or delete it from the post, however, I want to use it as an opportunity to illustrate what we are up against as eBay sellers.

We are up against mediocrity.

Think you can handle the competition?

A few more pearls of wisdom from the same comment:

“Secondly, u dabbled on ebay, made some money, and now that its actually requiring some work and the fun of it is a little lost, ur too lazy to do what is essentially a job.

I work full time and sell stuff on ebay that i have lying around, stop proacrasting and just do it instead of whining that its overwhelming your life.

It really doesn’t take that long to take some pics and throw up a description. And if you’ve got so much, then just learn to streamline it.”

Who wants to pick out the problems in these eloquent statements? Woah, woah, settle down, eParents, one at a time. Here, I’ll start:

The last thing I want you to do is to grab some stuff you have lying around the house, take some pictures and throw up a description. Folks, this is what everyone else does and that is precisely why eBay seems like a big junkyard of unappealing clutter half the time. That is also why a little research (okay, a lot) and attention to detail will set you apart from the sea of mediocrity.

eBay can be a blinding mass of mediocre sellers and bland listings. Set yourself apart. Pay attention to detail. Your customers will reward you for it.

Your customers will notice when you are taking your listings seriously. They will notice that you are treating your eBay business like a business. This translates to respect, which grows into trust. If your customers trust you, you’ve won. Now you just have to deliver.

Unfortunately, it’s the having to deliver part that can become a little overwhelming. And no, dear insult-slinging commenter, I don’t mean literally deliver, as I’m not being held back by trips to the post office. This may come as a shock, but I am well aware that USPS will pick up your packages for you. She of multiple website authorship was able to use mah wicked huge internet smahts to edumahcate mahself on that one.

Wait. Cain’t think. Have the duhms. Must go paint my toenails and spend my husband’s money.

Okay, I’m back.

My point is simple: You are up against both professional dynamos and mediocre schmoes. Don’t be intimidated by the dynamos and don’t be tempted into complacency by the schmoes.

This is a job. If you want to do it right, if you want to be successful, it’s going to take work. This isn’t a hobby. And as such, you are going to have ups and downs. You will be riding high one day, full of energy and motivation, and then you’ll find you can’t even muster the enthusiasm to check your feedback the next.

Such is the nature of a real business. When you are the boss, when you are in charge of your own professional future success or failures, rather than just a drone at a “real job,” the details are never so simple as black and white. It won’t always be as simple as “manning up” and just doing it. It is not a question of laziness or motivation. It’s far more complicated.

If you are going to do this, if you are going to sell on eBay with any hope of being a long-term success, then do it right. Commit. Go “all in.” Accept the challenge and know that it won’t always be simple.

Are you “all in” or not? Time to put it on the table.

Remember when I told you that this wouldn’t be a how-to blog about eBay? I said that it would stand apart from all of the mundane and functional “Top 10 blahdy blahs about eBay” posts out there? Well, no sooner had I typed those words than I began writing how-to articles.

Sure, I have been including my personal experiences in all of the pieces, but I don’t feel like it’s been personal enough.

So, here’s the real deal: I am sick of eBay. When I think of eBay lately, my feelings are well summed up with one word: “Eh.”

This may sound strange, but I fear that I may have enjoyed too much success too soon. I became complacent. The challenge dissipated and the fun went with it.

eMoms at Home founder, Wendy Piersall, has written frequently about the dangers of burnout for work-at-home parents. In fact, it was one of her articles that made me decide to finally take this job at eBay Selling for eParents. I was already suffering from eBay burnout and felt that writing about it might reignite my once consuming passion.

Spark… spark… … … fizzle. Damn.

So here I am. Rather than imbibing this blog with honest stories about what it really takes to be an eBay success, I’ve been beating around the bush with the nuts and bolts stuff. Every time I sit down to write to you, I consider telling you that sometimes, occasionally, it’s tough to maintain an eBay business as a work-at-home parent. But then I chicken out. I’m afraid of scaring you off. Afraid that I’ll talk you out of what I know for a fact to be a fantastic home-based business if I write too frankly about the ups and downs involved.

Stop. We’re all adults. Heck, being adults (and therefore privy to certain horizontal extracurricular activities) is what got us into this mess as parents anyway, right? I don’t have to tiptoe around the tulips with ya’ll.

My eBay store has been on an hiatus of its own for a while now. A few months ago, I more or less closed my eBay store in order to temporarily focus on other things. I was worn out from managing customers, feedback, and shipping (the single hardest aspect of eBay for me), and found that I was constantly distracted by so many projects. I had begun considering bringing in some kind of child care so that I could get things done. I’m supposed to be a stay-at-home mom and I’m considering in-home daycare?

My inventory stares me in the face everyday. The finance charges on my credit cards from buying the inventory in the first place are a sickening reminder of how I haven’t been doing my “job.” And yet. I just can’t seem to get back on the horse.

If I’m not careful, the horse is going to ride on by me.

Holiday sales on eBay are big. Huge. And they start early. Last year, I actually closed my store a few weeks before Christmas because I could not keep up with the volume of sales I was achieving. That’s right, you heard me. I was making too much money. Too many buyers were bidding on my auctions. I was too successful and, therefore, overwhelmed.

I warned you that there are monster profits to be made on eBay. But you had better be ready for it.

I swore that this holiday season, I would be ready for it. I would plan ahead, using my experience from last year. And that, my friends, has been my excuse to not reopen my eBay store. I am in a perpetual state of wanting to get all my ducks in a line before I relaunch everything, aiming for a level of perfect organization that will likely never happen.

This is stagnation. Welcome to my rut.

At its root, what appears to be keeping me from fully reopening my eBay store is a fear of success. Everything I need to move my inventory in a snap is right at my fingertips. I could be selling thousands of dollars a month in listings right this very second if only I would just do it.

Instead, I have become self-defeating. I look around my home and see an endless list of things to do. I look at my children and feel a guilt that pulls me away from an entrepreneurial passion. An endless list of excuses.

Working at home is complicated. It is challenging. It is far more difficult than working outside of the home.

Rather than end this post on my perpetually optimistic high note, I’m going to turn to you for help. Something that is very difficult for me to do. It is my nature as a psychologist and self-sufficient know-it-all to work things out to their ends, analyzing the “why’s” and “how’s” and “what now’s” of every situation.

Knowing what to do (and knowing for a fact that it will work, with ease) and doing it are two very different things.

Success has immobilized me.

Someone explain that to me.