Throughout the few months that I have been running my blog at sellyourbooksonline.com, I’ve run into countless people just like me that are running a part time business selling books. I’ve heard from receptionists wanting to make some money on the side to make ends meet, almost retirees that are trying to get ramped up with their book business before they retire, sole entrepreneurs that have another business and sell books on the side and high tech IT consultants (me) that the thought of selling books at one time was the farthest from my mind.
It seems that a lot more people are coming online and either selling a books here and there during their lunch hour or in the evenings. There is also those folks that are deciding to completely replace incomes or dive head first into book selling and really try to make something out of it but at the same time, have a full time job and can’t dedicate 100% of their time to it.
Here are a few tips if you or someone else you know is struggling with balancing a full time job and a book business. The biggest problem that full time workers face is lack o time. These tips will help you eek out every last bit of productivity from that time to allow you to grow your book business.
- Find the most valuable part of your business and concentrate on it. Since you’re time is limited to your book business concentrate on activities that make you the most money. For example, I consistently try to focus my time on acquiring new inventory. I find that new, fresh inventory typically goes hand in hand with good sales months. Time management skills are by far the most important part of balancing a full time job and a part time book business and finding the most valuable part of your business to concentrate on will be a critical skill.
- Take advantage of lunch hours. Lunch hours are perfect for answering customer service emails, repricing, checking orders, etc. Anything that you don’t have to physically be at home is a great opportunity to do on your lunch hour.
- Leverage your family/spouse. If you’re selling more than a few books a day, you are going to need some help listing, fulfilling orders and everything else that comes with running an online book selling business. If you’re at work, try to get a spouse to help if she/he has the time or even try to recruit a family member to help you out even if you have to pay them a little bit.
- Time yourself – This may sound a little crazy at first but trust me, it helps. I used to fulfill orders a certain way where I would print out a pick list, pull the orders, clean and print out the labels. I was able to time myself doing different aspects of this and eventually came to a process that shaved a half hour off my process! This let me leave the business earlier and spend more time with my family.
Utilizing these tips along with a lot of hard work, dedication and a passion to keep on driving sales will help you excel in selling more books while still maintaining your full time job. If you handle everything right, you never know, one day you might just be able to quit that full time job and pursue the book business full time!
As always, you can visit my blog at sellyourbooksonline.com for more information regarding selling used books online where I discuss topics such as this along with anything else that helps the online booksellers excel in their business.
Time management is always one of the main factors in any business’ growth. Thanks for the handy helpful hints.
Always having fresh inventory is important for any bookseller–online, shows, or shop. I should time myself on various tasks but don’t, at my age, have the heart to do so.
This article is helpful for many book business owners who are having business part time and full time. It’s also important that you should make perfect plan for your business because if you have a good plan than you can manage everything and also it will make your business successful.