Selling on Ebay to Pay Down Debt

Things have been fairly crazy here since I got back from my mini-vacation to see family in Minnesota over the weekend! One of the things that’s been keeping me extremely busy is our online business. But not in a way most would expect.

My husband and I talked about the future of BodyBangles as he drove me to the airport on Thursday. We ended our paid advertisements on the web back in December and we are allowing word-of-mouth and repeat customers to do their magic. We are still making profit after our expenses – though, admittedly, not much, and not enough to justify the time required to maintain an ecommerce website. So we needed to make a decision regarding whether we were going to keep our business or try to sell it.

Another factor in the decisions we make about the business is that I am the primary maintainer of the site, with the exception of technical issues. Having the site actually gave me a lot of practical experience in the field I have my degree in, which will be great for my resume! However, with one toddler and perhaps more in the future, my time is extremely limited. There are several things I’d like to do more – write, for instance, and improve my skills in knitting, crocheting, and sewing so they can perhaps bring in a residual income. And my garden this spring. I love to do those things, and they bring me a lot of joy. Our business used to be that way, and I don’t know if it’s the fact that we still have so much debt from start up and aren’t making it back fast, or if I’ve just found new things to be interested in, but I don’t really want to spent so much time on it anymore.

So on that ride to the airport Thursday, we discussed several options, including keeping the business and starting to work on it again, and selling it – in parts or in its entirety. I thought a lot about it over the weekend, and made a decision – we’ll liquidate our inventory and equipment by using Ebay Stores. Hopefully, since our jewelry is a popular item on Ebay, it will sell fast at our wholesale prices, and what doesn’t sell we’ll eventually auction as a wholesale lot.

If we are successful, selling our business inventory should help pay off a good part of our debt (although I’m ashamed to admit I don’t know the actual total value of our product!) Now, if I can just get all our inventory onto Ebay so I can start working on selling the clutter around our house!

An edit:  Since many have wondered, we are liquidating body jewelry and italian charms in our Ebay store.  I’m still only about half done adding products as of February 5th, 2008, so please keep checking back!