List It Now!

Take this from a teacher. The new teacher graudates are getting jobs, the returning teachers are shopping now for the 2014-2015 school year. If you have anything to do with classroom decoration, organization, supplies, books, or educational supplies get them listed now! Look on pintrest to see popular themes for this year, then check your inventory to see what you can tweak to make it work for a classroom.
Use keywords to help teachers find you. They are looking now as time to start prepping their rooms in just a few weeks. They are going to trainings and getting new ideas and motivation!  I have listed all of these items in just one of my teacher totes and it all sold within 2 weeks. I only have about 100 more to go. I am planning on listing mostly teacher stuff this upcoming week.

examples of teacher items you might not have thought about before:
over the door shoe holders
sheets
stuffed animals (especially those that go with books)
puppets
ipad, ipod, phone and computer accessories
cardboard cereal boxes, tp tubes, metal cans,
fun lights and lamps
bean bags and other small furniture
rugs
pillows
mobiles, and other ceiling hanging decorations
dress clothes that are also comfy
comfy shoes
orange vests, whistles, fanny packs, emergency medical kits
phone chargers
any regular school supplies a student might need, many teachers purchase these in bulk to give their students in need: ex backpacks, scissors, crayons, lunch boxes, extra pants (for accidents at school, usually elastic waists are best, uniforms, underwear, hygenic supplies, blankets

Anything else you can think of?

FBA Friday Series #3: Sending in your first FBA shipment- Split Shipments

Now you're ready to fill your first FBA box. I suggest starting small until you get the hang of it. I started with a small box of about 10 items. The easiest items to ship are those that are already fully enclosed, things in boxes with UPC codes on the outside, etc.

There are two ways to add items to your FBA account. I currently use the scan and ship method, as it cuts down on how many warehouses you have to ship to. But it's easier to do with a scanner, so I will show you the otherway for now. (Sorry, I can't remember right now what it's called.) Please be kind to me, I have not done it this way since they changed the format, so I am trying to figure out the new way for you! I am more familiar with the scan and ship method and I will show you the scan and ship later.

1. log in to your seller account.
2. under the inventory tab at the top left, choose Manage Inventory

3. Find and item you'd like to ship to FBA and select action-change to fulfilled by Amazon

4.  Then choose continue with convert

5. choose continue to shipping plan 

6. continue adding products until you have filled your box, by selecting products from your inventory

you then choose continue on the right hand bottom of the screen

7. there will be prep guidelines to help your package your items correctly, as well as a place to say if you want to label your items, or Amazon to, it costs more to have Amazon do it, so choose merchant labels. 

8. when you are all done and ready to label the items for your shipment, choose print labels for this page. This will print all of your labels for your items that are ready to ship.Place the labels on your  items, be sure to cover the original UPC code. Also double check to make sure you have removed the original price sticker-seems simple, but when you are processing a lot of inventory, it can be easy to miss! 

This next part is why I choose to do scan and ship instead of this way.  This is where all of your items will be divided to go to different warehouses. You can either put them into a shipment that has already been created or put them into a new shipment. When you are done choose approve shipments at the bottom right. Now you are ready to weigh, and measure your boxes and print your labels to ship. 

This post is getting a little long, so I will continue with how to weigh and print labels for your shipment next week. I hope this is making sense, it seems complicated here, but I promise, after you do it a few times it will get easier. I didn't read anything before I tried it the first time, I just got on and started clicking on things until I figured it out. If you try and need help, please feel free to contact me, or leave a comment and I will help you if I can. Amazon also provides really great step by step directions in their help section! 

FBA Friday Series # 2: What you need to get started on FBA (The Very Basics)

Sorry for being late in posting this. Hubby surprised me with a trip away for our anniversary and I didn't have time to post before we left. 

This is how I started at the very beginning on FBA. I have some other things that I have purchased since I started that made things easier, but for a year this is how I did it.

printer and sheets of  address size labels
boxes for shipping (18 x 18 x 16 is the biggest you can do without getting an oversize charge on shipping)
packing tape
shipping labels or paper for printing mailing labels
some inventory you want to sell- I'd start by looking around your house or in your inventory for some items that have UPC codes on them
an Amazon Pro Merchant account ($40 a month) (Amazon Merchant Fulfullied costs you a dollar per item in fees, if you sell more than 40 items a month then it's already worthwhile) you can see Amazon's explanation here 

plastic bags- 2ML thick with a suffication warning label, or your own suffication warning labels to put on you bags (you only need these if you are selling things that aren't self contained, like a book, a toy with an opening etc. )
If you are planning on bundling items you will also need some bags or shrink wrap to put them together with. I used household cling wrap in the beginning, not the best, but it works and it's pretty cheap.
if you are selling more than one item in a bundle you will also need some stickers that say do not seperate.

next time we will talk about listing your item for FBA.
until next time~




The accidental yard sale

So, Saturday was supposed to be a yard sale free day for me. My son's birthday is next week and we decided to go on an outing with our close family to celebrate.  So, no yard sales for me, or so I thought.
We had to drive about an hour to a bigger city to go to our outing spot and along the way my mother in law got lost. So we pulled over the the side of the street waiting for her to catch up, when I glanced over and what did I see~ you got it, a yard sale!  So, since we had 10 minutes or so to wait for her to catch up and I had my emergency yard sale money in the car (don't leave home without it!) I decided it wouldn't hurt to take a look.

Here's what I found.

I paid $17 for everything. Three pair of Dr Martins, 1 pair of Born Sandals, and 1 pair Ropers cowboy rainboots for $3 each. Lots of clothes for baby girl for .25 each and a toy for either baby girl or a toy lot to sell. Not bad for 10 minutes work on the way to a birthday party! Hoping to make roughly $230 on the shoes.


Then it was on to the birthday party, where little man had an awesome time!
Love my job.

Working from home with children

I continue to adjust to working from home. I've seen a lot of questions lately on my facebook groups about how to get things done with little children at home. I'll admit, it's hard, and the last fews days around our household have been harder than usual.

Here are a few suggestions I have, as well as a schedule we've been using (and tweaking) that might help those of you with littles at home also.

What has helped me the most is to make a list of things that I can do for the business while they are awake, versus while they are not awake.

here is my list:

Awake:
photograph
edit photographs
check email/groups
research (simple things)
take off labels/clean merchandise
ship/pack (if I have already brought the items in from the shed)
take packages to the mail box
blog posts

Things I cannot do while they are awake:
list (by the way, I can't do this when Hubby is awake either, he always wants to talk to me and messes me up!)
put things in boxes or sort
make ebay videos for listings
carry boxes to my shop
put things away/organize


Here is our schedule we've been using for a few weeks. It's similar to the schedule we used last summer when baby girl was a newborn. I am planning on adjusting the schedule further in a few weeks by designating certain days for amazon, ebay, sourcing, yard saling etc.

6-7:00 kiddos up (hopefully closer to 7, I let them wake up themselves for now, no alarms until August!)
7-8 dressed, medicine, teeth, breakfast- while they are eating breakfast, I try to take a few pictures, as my photo "studio" is right next to the kitchen for now
8-10 for mommy- pack ebay orders, take to mailbox, household chores time- laundry, dishes, dinner (if in the crockpot) etc
for kiddos- play time
10-11:00 snack for kiddos, mommy time with kiddos for project, reading, etc
11:00-12:00 more photos, photo editing or chores for Mommy
12:00-1:00 lunch for everyone, 30 minute educational time on ipad for little man, quiet play time for baby girl
1:00-3:00 (on a good day!) naps/rest time for littles (sometimes mommy- but usually too much to do)
mommy- list, phone calls, vaccumming (baby girl is terrified of the vaccum) bath or shower, research for ebay, organize ebay items, carry boxes out to shop
3:00-6:00 kiddos up, snack and movie or play time, mommy, chores or ebay, start on dinner
6-6:30 Dinner with Daddy, yay!
7:30 kiddos start getting ready for bed
8:00 bed time for littles
8-9:30 Mommy and Daddy quality time
9:30-2:00 mommy business time
I have been doing okay with the lack of sleep if I go to bed around 10 o'clock a couple of times a week. I also try to take a nap when the kids do, as least for an hour or so once or twice a week.

I am needing to find more time to do household chores, but am finding it hard to get anything done when the kids come right behind me and mess things up again. I think once the house has been gone thru once and caught up it will be easier. I'm going for the looks good for company look right now and then will get to the decluttering and organizing once little man goes back to school. I think August will make things a little easier as for now baby girl is easier to get things done with then both of them. We'll see what fall brings, once she can talk more it might be a different story!

How about you? Do you have a schedule that works for you?

What I've been listing

Disney Store Baby Doll Corduroy Dress 

BCBG Dress 

Talking Blue Mater Pickup 

I SPY book lot 

Clarks Mary Janes Shoes 

Brother Portable Typewriter 

Here's a few things I've been listing lately. I'm trying to list at least $300 a day. So far it's been hit and miss, but now that Bible School is over hopefully I can meet or exceed that daily goal. What have you been listing?

New Series: FBA Friday Question #1- When did you start selling FBA?

I got a lot of great questions about FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon) and I'm excited to dedicate a new blog series to answering your FBA questions. (to the best of my ability anyway!)

I'll start with first things first. I was trying to remember when I first started selling with FBA.  I've sold on Amazon since I was in college, mostly used college books and then teacher books. Then I had to go part time at my teaching job about 4 years ago, when little man was around 2 years old. I wasn't planning on going part time and was scrambling at the last minute to make some extra income. I found this blog http://apronthriftgirl.typepad.com. I read the whole thing in 1 day and it literally changed my life!
I started thrifting for profit the next day. I started out selling only Merchant Fulfilled (MF) but kept hearing about FBA and how great it was. I had a lot of inventory listed MF for about a year, and then I decided to try FBA with a few items and see what all of the fuss was about. My first box had 5 items in it, I think they were all toys. I had been selling them MF for over a year for about $12.95. I had 5 or 6 of them and had only sold 1 or two the whole time. I sold out within a day of hitting the warehouse for $24.95 each.  I haven't turned back since and Amazon FBA is a big reason why I am able to try working from home full time this year. Last year I sold as much as I made at my day job, this wasn't all profit, but I know that if I had the time to devote to it I could at least double it, which would make my take home pay as much or more than my teaching salary.

I currently have a little over 1000 items at FBA and about 20 items I still MF, mostly those that I think might sell better on Ebay. Most items I look at sell for a much higher price on Amazon. I sell in mostly toys, grocery and health a beauty, but I will scan pretty much anything and if it makes a good profit, into the basket it goes.

I love FBA for a few simple reasons. I can list an entire car load, box it up and have it ready to go in 1 really long day, or a few short days. It would take me months to list that much on Ebay. I can source anywhere, anytime and with my kiddos in tow. I listed over 5000 items last year and when it came time to pay the long term storage fees I only had 3 items that qualified for long term storage fees (or had been in the warehouse for 6 months or more!) I marked them down and sold all but one of them, which I had returned to me and sold on ebay a few months later. I can be on vacation and make money, I can be in the hospital having a baby and make money. I can be 6 months pregnant and unable to walk without a walker and still make money. During the not able to walk time I had to close down most of my ebay business because I couldn't walk to pack up packages. My FBA business was still going strong.

next in the series:
The Basics: Getting Started on FBA

Organizing Supplies for FBA (Fulfilled by Amazon)

This is what I have been busy doing for the last couple of days.

30 boxes packed and ready to ship out. UPS isn't able to pick them up today due to flooding, so hopefully they can pick them up tomorrow.

I'm ready to have my dining room back and some money in the bank!

Speaking of Amazon and FBA, I decided to organize my FBA clear suffication warning bags so it would be easier to pack up my items. I get my bags from here . They ship really fast and I've had great luck with their supplies- no affiliation, just a happy customer.

I had this set of drawers left over from my classroom, but I originally found them at Sams Club for around $20.
I simply labeled the size of the bag on each drawer and then filled them up. The top drawer has my suffication and do not separate labels, as well as my shrink wrap on a roll.  Now it will be so much easier to see which bags I need to reorder. (Hence the  4 drawers that are doubled- I ordered some I had already!)

I will probably do the same thing for my poly mailing bags as well. I have 5 more sets of these drawers and a double set of them too, since I have to store them anyway, might as well make use of them, right?

Interested in hearing more about FBA? Post what you'd like to know in the comments below and I'll be happy to write about your questions in future posts. 

Also, did you hear on the news that North East Colorado had a 3.7 earthquake on Saturday night?  As if the flooding isn't enough, we have to have earthquakes too? My parents have lived here for over 70 years and have never had an earthquake~ weird isn't it?