She Thrifts

Thrift. Flip. Repeat.

Goals to stay on track

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For the last week or so my sales have been steady and in the ballpark of where I want them to be. Which is great! Unfortunately I was sick last week and worked almost not at all for two days, and about half speed the rest of the time. Which is not so great. Any time my listing drops off I fear my visibility and sales will drop off too.

I really need to finish off this month with strong sales. In addition to all of the normal financial obligations I am trying to meet, I also purchased airfare for my husband and FIL to fly to Pittsburgh in a couple months to see a Steelers game. The Steelers are my FIL’s favorite team and he has never seen them before on their home field. This has been a trip my husband has been wanting to take with his dad for years. My husband is turning the big 4-0 in a few months, and I figured that was as good as an excuse as any. So off they will go! And I would like to pay for the trip with eBay-made-money.

So my goals for the upcoming week are as follows:

  • List 12 new items/day on eBay.
  • Try to have the 12 new listings completed before 8 p.m.
  • Cross post 5 listings onto PM.
  • Spend 1 hour/day (5 of the 7 days) organizing my storage room.

It doesn’t sound like a whole lot, but two days next week are inservice days from school for my boys, so it will feel like I only have a 3 day workweek. Ah well. And so it goes, we soldier on.

What are your current goals? I would love to hear about them!

Celebrating a small success

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As I previously mentioned, I spent most of the last school year working 5 days per week and thus spent a lot less time on my eBay business. Today is the first day in many MANY months that I have seen my “compared to same period a year ago” percentage in the green! At times I was in the red as much as 50% below last year. I know it’s a small thing, but it feels like a solid step in the right direction. Yay!

A new season

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I have moved into a new season of my life, both literally and figuratively.

For the past many years I have kind of had the best of both worlds. When my oldest son was born (now almost 12 years ago) I was able to stay home with him. This was really important to me, especially since we don’t have any family who lives nearby to help out. I know how lucky I was to have the choice to stay home. I was also lucky that I was able to move from my full-time job as a librarian into a substitute position. The great thing about the sub position was that I had total control over when I would work. When my boys were young this limited me to working on days my husband was off, which worked out well. As they have gotten older and are now in school full time I started working more and more, and during the last school year I was usually working 5 days a week.

That was, until the middle of June, when I found out that all sub positions city-wide were being eliminated. There were other departments in the city affected by this, but it hit the library especially hard – 18 people lost their jobs.

I wasn’t entirely sure how to feel. Part of me was sad, for sure. I had worked there for 17(!) years. But there was also a little part of me that has always wondered what I could do if I wasn’t trying to split my time between my work there and my work at home.

So, I enjoyed July and August with my boys being out of school, working from home. During those couple months I was still trying to decide if I needed to try and find another job, or if I should stick with online sales. In fact at the end of August I was in the middle of filling out an application (for a job that only comes open once a year) when I realized that I really, really did not want the job. What I wanted was to give myself the next 9 months to work from home and see what I could do when my time was really my own.

So of course I talked to my husband, and he was on board. The gist of what he said was – as long as we are able to pay our bills at the end of the month, we’re good. Do whatever makes you happy. Yup, he’s awesome. So I didn’t apply for the job, and I’ve given myself nine months (now down to eight) to see what I can do when my time is my own.

So far, this is what I have done. (This was as of 10 minutes ago, as I type.)

I have been working and working and working to get my “compared to same period a year ago” back up to 0. Because I was working so much at the library there were many months that my sales were 50% less than they had been the year before. I am soooo close to that goal! (Of 0%, ha. But we’ve got to start somewhere, right?)

I have many more goals that I am working towards, but that is my life right now in a nutshell.

I would love to hear about how the work-life balance is going for you. Do you have a good routine, or is it ever changing? Please share!

Big Summer Goals: 9

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I was consistent with my listing the first half of the week, and then I got wrapped up in a big project which diverted a lot of my attention at the end of the week.

Last week I listed 37 new items, for a total of 567 listings since June 1.

My 31 day sales are actually up, for the first time in weeks.  Which actually just emphasizes how crummy my sales were in July, because you can see my sales compared to last year are still down by a lot.

At this point I *think* that this will be a less hectic week, and that I should be able to re-focus on my eBaying.  But, you know, summer.  So we shall see.

Big Summer Goals: Week 7/Week 8

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Sorry I flaked on my update last week.  I didn’t have anything great to report (again), so I just procrastinated …. until an entire week went by.

Last week I listed 41 new items, for a total of 484 listings since June 1.

Sales were still down.

This week I listed 46 new items.

Since June 1 this puts my grand total at 530 new listings.

Again, sales are still down.

I think I have been focusing too much on my weekly goals (which resulted in procrasting the first half of the week and then trying to make up for it at the end of the week – and almost always falling short).  I somehow lost sight of the fact that this whole thing was supposed to be about CONSISTENCY which means doing the smaller number of listings day after day after day after day after day.  So that is what I am working on in August – meeting my original, smaller, attainable listing goal every single day.

Onward.

Big Summer Goals: Week 6

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I hit my listing goal this week.  What I really need to start doing is exceeding my listing goal because there have weeks where I’ve fallen behind.  If I am going to have any chance of actually hitting my big goal I need to make up some ground now.

Anyway.

This week I listed 77 new items.

Since June 1 this puts my grand total at 443 new listings.

Sales this week are my worst in months.  This whole summer has been pretty awful, but this week took the cake.  I am actually feeling pretty discouraged about it all.  I know last year sales were slow in the summer and picked up again in August.  I am hoping that happens this year too, but I dunno.  I really don’t know what to think.

In addition to listing, I am also trying to keep up on getting my newly listed inventory put away.  Also, keeping my tax info updated.  Also, I am still updating my listings that are mysteriously missing photos.  And I have been trying to cross post most of my new clothing listings to Poshmark.  And hang out with my kiddos and have fun since they are on summer break.  It’s a lot to juggle.

Onward to a fresh new week!

Big Summer Goals: Week 5

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This has been a kinda weird week, listing-wise, because for 3 whole days during the week I didn’t list at all.  What I did do was enjoy my 4th of July and spend part of the weekend at my parents’ house.  But, I was determined to get my listing in anyway, and put in a lot of work the last couple days.  I finished up my last few listings for the week not long before midnight, happy to exactly meet my weekly goal.  And then I did the math for this blog post.  And realized I was off, and am actually 10 listings short for the week.  Darn.  It.  Anyway.  But, thinking I was closer than I was to my goal made me work harder to reach it, and I did extra listing tonight that I probably wouldn’t have done if I realized hitting my goal was out of reach.

Anyway.

This week I listed 67 new items.

Since June 1 this puts my grand total at 366 new listings.

Sales have maybe ticked up a bit, but honestly it still seems really slow.

Here’s to starting an even more productive week tomorrow!

Big Summer Goals: Week 4

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I fell short of my listing goal. And my sales are down quite a bit.  I had several days in a row where barely anything sold.  It’s so strange.  I feel like eBay has been SO glitchy lately.  Things I notice that obviously aren’t right, and after a day or two they correct themselves.  Right now a bunch of my listings have photos that aren’t showing up when you click into the listing.  New listings, old listings, there seems to be no rhyme or reason.  I keep hoping it will resolve on its own, but I should probably call eBay.  I had someone e-mail me to ask about a $50 coat because they couldn’t see any photos.  Sigh.  I don’t want to have to take all new photos for a bunch of listings, so I keep holding out hope it will be magically fixed.  Anyway.

This week I listed 63 new items.

Since June 1 this puts my grand total at 299 new listings.

I have been fighting a summer cold, and went to be earlier than usual a couple nights this week.  And with the 4th of July holiday week coming up we are extra busy with fun stuff, so keeping up on my listings this week will be rough too.  And so it goes.

Sad week of sales:

Here’s hoping the summer slump doesn’t stick around, and things start to bounce back.

Big Summer Goals: Week 3

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Week three already.  I met my listing goal.  But, just.  And because I listed about a third of my week’s listings today.

But, you know what?  That means this is working.  I certainly listed more today (and this week overall) because of my Big Summer Goal, and knowing that I will be posting this weekly update.  And I’m okay with that.  Whatever it takes to get the work done.

This week I listed 78 new items.

Since June 1 this puts my grand total at 236 new listings.

I am still struggling with balance.  Sometimes I get up early and get a lot of work done and feel really good about it.  Sometimes I get up early and feel really tired and go back to bed.  It’s not a perfect system.  My to-do lists are long, my time is always running short.  Sometimes I feel like I am just along for the ride.

My sales have ticked up just a bit this week:

It’s not much, but it is nice to see it in the green.

How are your summer goals going this week?

Big Summer Goals: Week 2

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It’s only week two, and I have already faltered.  I fell short of my listing goal by quite a bit.

This week I only listed  60 new items.

Since June 1 this puts my grand total at 158 new listings.

I really struggled with balance over the last week.  From listing, to working my other job, to my boys being out of school, to having fun family activities planned – I did not get everything out of it that I had hoped.  But, another week starts tomorrow, and I plan to do better!  Which includes going to bed early-ish tonight and getting up early tomorrow morning to get back to work.  I find that I am generally more motivated to work early in the morning before anyone else is up than I am when I put it off until after my boys are in bed.

Unfortunately, along with my lack of listing, my sales have dipped this week:

And so it goes.  Gearing up for a better week to come.

How are your summer goals going?