What’s going on everybody? YouTube Steve here, Raiken Profit over at raikenandprofit.com, coming back to you with another video, live in the parking lot of Savers, waiting for my mom, AKA momma profit to arrive and we’re going to go in and do a little book sourcing, probably look for some video games, board games, DVD’s, go through some clothes, see what they have over here. But I want to make a video talking about is Ebay really a business? Because my friend, he works a full time and he’s pretty miserable, he doesn’t make a lot of money at this job and he told one of his managers that he needs to cut his hours back because he needs to focus on his Ebay business and guess what this person said? Well first of all, they laughed at him and said, “Ebay’s not a business, Ebay’s a hobby.”

What do you do in that situation if maybe a coworker or a friend, or a family member or your manager, or your boss says, “Ebay’s not a business,” what do you do? What do you say? Is it true? Is Ebay a business? Here’s the thing, I’m going to tell you. The average person who doesn’t sell on Ebay, or Amazon, or Resell, they think and even the people at the thrift stores, I swear I’ve talked to a lot of them, they think that what we do as resellers is a hobby, they don’t think we’re making money. They think that we’re working for pennies, right? Great comment from Rhea saying, “We pay taxes right?” The general public does not think that Ebay sellers and Amazon sellers for the most part, they don’t think we’re making money. They actually think we’re the bottom feeders, the scavengers, going to these thrift stores, going to garage sales.

The average person doesn’t realize how much money you could make selling on Ebay, selling on Amazon, flipping stuff on Craigslist. So, I’ll tell you right now, if a manager or a boss, or a friend, or a family member says that, you want to know what? Don’t listen to them. Don’t listen to people who have no experience. So many people want to give you their two cents and their feedback on what you should do and what you shouldn’t do but they’ve never even sold on Ebay. They’ve never even a run business before. The average person never even starts a business because they listen to what other people say about business being too risky and most businesses fail, and you want to know what? That’s true. The reason why most businesses fail is because people, they don’t think and they treat it like a hobby and they’re not constantly improving and they’re not constantly growing and they don’t take it serious.

Ebay is most certainly a business. Now, I guess you’re going to have to define what a business is but for me, a business would be something that I create to add value that makes me money, right? I own it to an extent, with Ebay you’re getting $10.99’d but still at the end of the day, you’re sourcing products, you’re storing products, inventory management, you’re shipping, you’re dealing with customer service. I mean, Ebay’s pretty much the same thing as every other business, the only thing that we’re not really focusing on as Ebay sellers is driving traffic, Ebay they have their platform and there’s millions of users on it. So, one of the hardest parts of running a business is acquiring customers and for the most part, we don’t have to worry about that when we sell on Ebay because we’re relying on Ebay’s traffic and Ebay’s brand.

But I tell you, if someone tells you Ebay is not a business, Amazon’s not a business, reselling it’s a hobby, you’re wasting your time. I could promise you they’ve never resold before, so just ignore them, don’t worry about them. If you’re trying to quit your job and you got people doubting you or you’re trying to grow your business and people are telling you, “You can’t do it, it’s just a hobby. You can’t make money.” You want to know what? Listen to people who are currently running part-time to full-time businesses who have been in it for three, four, or five years. I’ve been selling on Ebay, Amazon, reselling on Craigslist five, six years now. It’s possible to start a business on Ebay and have success, whether success for you is defined as a couple hundred dollars a month or a couple thousand dollars a month, or $10 to $20000 dollars a month.

There’s people out there making hundreds of thousands of dollars even millions, not really on Ebay but for the most part with Amazon, with private label and building your own brands and Shopify but there’s plenty of people making thousands of dollars per month selling on Ebay from thrift stores and garage sales. Antonio says, “People that say it’s not a business are just lazy bums collecting checks.” So there’s a couple comments coming in here, let’s keep things kosher. I don’t like to put down people who don’t see eye to eye with me, but I’m not going to take their advice. Every one’s entitled to their own opinion but take advice from people who are where you want to be. Hey Derek, thanks so much! Love you my man, thank you for everything! I love you too Derek, thanks for the love.

Hey guys, I also wanted to let you know that today if you’re on email list or if you follow me on Facebook, I actually just released a new Ebook. Pre-order is available. It’s called A 101 Killer Tie Brands, so if you’ve ever gone through a 101 killer shoe brands or a 101 clothing brands, A 101 Killer Tie Brands is all about the best ties to sell on Ebay. So if you go to raikenprofit.com/ties, you can actually pre-order it, I think it’s $19.95, so it’s 25% off. Definitely check that out. But that’s the great thing about Ebay, people think it’s a hobby, they think you can’t make money doing it but if you really narrowed down into a niche, and you get good at and you learn what to buy, what to avoid, what sells best, right? What’s in demand? What has a really big market?

You start crafting a little niche, right? Whether that’s clothing or ties, or maybe it’s shoes. I remember when I first started reselling, I was flipping bicycles on Craigslist, big shout out to the bonafide hustler, if it wasn’t for him, I’d probably still be working at the Cracker Barrel. I learned how to buy and resell bikes, did like $10 to $20000 dollars worth of flips that first summer, sold a couple hundred bikes and I mastered that niche but I moved on. Why? Because I live in Connecticut and when winter time hit, they’re weren’t anybody selling bikes anymore, there were no bikes at the thrift store so I learned clothing, right? So, I flipped bikes, clothing, I still flip bikes and clothing. Shoes, ties, video games, board games. There’s so much money to be made out there. Oh I see momma profit pulling up right now, and there’s my little tripod, this little Dunkin Donuts coffee.

But don’t let anybody put you down saying, “Ebay’s a hobby, Ebay’s not a business.” Yeah, some people out there treat it like a hobby and they end up quitting Ebay, so many people they start selling on Ebay, ask them how they’re doing six months later or three months later and they don’t even sell on Ebay anymore, it’s because they’re treating it like a hobby. Ebay’s a business but it’s only a business if you treat it like a business. You got to set standards for yourself with sourcing, you’ve got to learn and educate yourself and grow. You’ve got to ship your items out on time, you’ve got to do what you got to do to be successful and let’s see if we can get a shout out from momma profit real quick. How you doing? I’m live on YouTube right now.

Click To Watch This Video On YouTube…

Speaker 2: What?

Steve: I’m live on YouTube.

Speaker 2: Oh you are.

Steve: Just say hello real quick.

Speaker 2: Hi.

Steve: No, you have to come over.

Speaker 2: Okay.

Steve: Everyone say hi to momma profit.

Speaker 2: Hi, how are you?

Steve: What are we going to do right now?

Speaker 2: Going into Savers.

Steve: Going into savers, have you been to Savers today yet?

Speaker 2: Once.

Steve: Was there anything?

Speaker 2: He was putting books out.

Steve: Yeah. How long you been selling on Amazon for?

Speaker 2: Going on fifth year.

Steve: Fifth year. I know you might not know off the top, but every year you’ve kind of grown a little bit haven’t you?

Speaker 2: Yes.

Steve: Are you on pace to grow this year too?

Speaker 2: Yes.

Steve: No, because you had a goal last year, are you going to actually pass it this year?

Speaker 2: Yes.

Steve: Yes is the answer. So anyways, we’re going into Savers right now. There’s quite a few people here so, I’m going to see what we can find. Do you typically do well at night time? Well in the evening at Savers?

Speaker 2: Sometimes.

Steve: So we’re going to see how it is but remember, treat Ebay like a business if you want people to take you serious, momma profit, you’re treating Amazon like a business.

Speaker 2: It is.

Steve: Right.

Speaker 2: It’s a business.

Steve: And she’s making that money, so appreciate you guys. Aaron says, “Was this click bait?” It wasn’t click bait but it got you to watch the video and it got you to realize that Ebay is a business but most people think it’s not, who cares what they think, right? A bunch of people saying, “Hi momma profit,” so anyways, if you guys want to check out my guide A 101 Killer Tie Brands, the pre-order is open, I’ll update the link below but if you go to raikenprofit.com/ties, raikenprofit.com/ties you could check out the guide and it’ll be 25% off pretty much all week until it launches October 29th, so with that being said money and I’ll see you in the nest one. Bye.