5 Tips To Get More Done At The Holidays!

by Kathy Terrill | Dec 6, 2017 | eCommerce Selling Tips, eCommerce Tips, Selling on eBay

I recently conducted a poll in my Facebook group for eBay sellers, eBay Stores Nothing But eBay Stores. I asked the group members what they need  right now during this busy Holiday time. The number one answer was “more hours in the day” right now.

Here are my top five tips for sellers to get more done during the Holidays.

#1 Get More Done And Set Priorities.

To get more done, set your day around your daily must do tasks.

To get more done each day, look at your to do list.

Prioritize your tasks. Shipping and customer service are daily essential tasks. To get more done, the rest of your day is set around your daily must do tasks. If you have rooms of unlisted inventory, you cannot list all of it in one day. Commit to listing XX per day. List the items that will make you most money first.

For social media, note where you get the most likes and comments. Whatever your  most popular social media site is, whether it’s your Facebook Business Page, Instagram, Twitter or Pinterest, focus there. Here are some quick tips to save time and maximize your social media.

#2 Strategize your time.

Make choices that move your eBay business forward.

To get more done look at your week. Let’s say you want to list forty items this week. How will you accomplish this?

Grouping tasks works. Set aside a few hours one day a week to photograph your items. Another day, edit your pictures and take measurements for your products. Then starting day three on,  list XX items daily.

Want to post on your Facebook Business Page three times daily?  To save time, use a scheduler like Hootsuite or Buffer. With a scheduler, once or twice a week,  set up your posts for the entire week or month.

Make choices that move your business forward. Something doesn’t get finished? Check your calendar and find a place to fit it in. I have great social media tips for you during the Holidays in my Top 10 Holiday Sales Success For Social Media Tips.

#3 Life will happen.

You plan your day. You’re moving along and then, bam, life happens. A customer situation  takes hours to resolve. A family crisis arises. Your internet connection goes down etc  Quickly look at the absolute MUST DO’s in your day. Do them. Deal with your crisis. Assess what time is left.

Which of your undone tasks is the most important? View your week and see what can be juggled to fit in the undone tasks. If you are a solopreneur with young children or elder care needs, there are daily family situations that occur. Be realistic about what can be done. Ask in Facebook groups for eBay sellers like eBay Selling Basics Nothing But Selling Basics how others deal with running a business with your life situation. The New York Times has some great tips on mastering life’s distractions when they happen in the blog post How To Make The Most Of Your Workday.

#4 Do your best.

Successful sellers set realistic challenges for themselves.

Each of us has unique strengths. One seller is super fast at listing, another is amazing on social media. Do your personal best.

If the best you can do is to list three items a day on eBay, good for you! Want to become a faster lister? Analyze your work flow. How can you speed up? Set a timer when you product research. Can you prep your items in less time, so that photographing them goes quicker? Measure products more efficiently, entering the information on an organized spread sheet to use later. Break down each step in your business.  Five minutes saved here and there adds up to thirty minutes to an hour and more in your day.

Applaud yourself for progress you make. Successful sellers set realistic challenges for themselves. You decide where and how you want to grow your eBay business. Assess and plan. Move forward, even if it’s baby steps.  Some sellers never make progress as they over analyze and endlessly discuss every action they take, rather than taking regular steps. Baby steps count!

#5 What Can Be Delegated?

The bottom line for any business is to make money.  You are running a business. If there is no room in your budget to hire workers, use every free tool you can get your hands on. Schedule your social media with Hootsuite and Buffer. Save hours using the complimentary email digest daily of Unroll.Me.

A business can only grow so large without help. Can you enlist family members to work? Can they list, source and or ship? High school kids can be hired to photograph listings. Is there a college nearby that has an intern program you can utilize?  Look at your profit margins. Find ways to increase them. Buy items in bulk.  Stop buying certain items as the marketplace price has dropped. Change the way you package an item saving on shipping weight and postage but still wrapping securely.

With as little as $8 -$10 a hour you can hire off shore virtual assistant helpers to do social media scheduling, inventory research, graphics and more for your business. This is my affiliate link for FreeeUp. FreeeUp is a marketplace where you can hire off shore and US based virtual assistants. Consider what that a few dollars a week buys you.  More free time for you means you can list, source and ship more, generating more cash!

To get more hours in the day, and get more done, it’s essential to prioritize your tasks.

Life throws you curves daily. Think through your work flow. Discover ways to streamline your essential tasks.  An improved work flow saves you precious time and money.  As you grow, utilize local help and or a marketplace like FreeeUp to hire professional workers for your business.

There are never enough hours in the day for the busy eBay seller. Adhere to the priorities you choose this Holiday season. Maximize your workflow and paycheck.

A planned selling strategy is the road for more profit and hours in the day.

What would you do with more money and time?