Okay, we all agree that there are thousands of self employment ideas out there, from becoming a freelance graphic artist to an online seller. Some good news - a friend of mine is quitting his day job as a sales manager to concentrate on his Ebay-based online business selling mobile phone accesories. Pretty nice self-employment idea if you ask me!
(My friend says he doesn't want to be named but I'm allowed to tell his story. So I'll call him Mike here for this purpose)
Mike's self employment idea came at least 3 years before he made the leap and quit his job. Back then he was working in a corporate sales team at a major mobile network operator. While he was working there, he got a glimpse of how big the mobile phone industry was and how it was still growing. That gave him an idea to tap into this expanding field, although it wasn't clear what it might be that he could do to take advantage of this trend. One of growth sectors he noticed was in the uptake of mobile phones services among teenagers and young adults.
Mike put this self employment idea into hibernation for a year while he concentrated on his job, which came with challenges of its own, like dealing with difficult people. He often had a complaint or two like most others when we met up and had to be on his toes at work sometimes. In the meantime, Mike had turned into an Ebay fan, scouring the site as a means of unwinding at the end of the day. He'd go on Ebay to look at the demand in electronics, furniture and collectibles, not necessarily to buy anything, but to browse and relax. This familiarity with the site turned out to be useful to his self employment idea later on.
The turning point came for Mike's self employment idea came when he went to Shanghai for a work assignment in 2009. After official business was done, Mike took an additional week to visit a few factories that manufacturered mobile phone accessories which he identified through Alibaba.com. The rest, they say, is history.
After selecting a small range of in-car mobile phone accessories and a few cases for the iphone where the margins were good and the quality satisfactory, he used his own savings to order a shipment. Like most self employment stories go, things don't go smoothly at first. Some stock just refused to get shifted on Ebay, Mike's own online store or other online marketplaces. I remember getting a lot of mobile phone accesorries as Christmas presents one year!
But if there was a lesson that Mike can share, it is to stay focused on the goal (make enough money to do this full-time) and move on (forget about stock that isn't selling and focus his energy on things he now knows will work). Instead of trying to get his money back from the unpopular products he had, Mike wote them off so he could concentrate on getting the right products to sell at the right price. The mobile phone market moves very quickily so he had to keep his eye on the ball and not worry about the money he already lost.
Late last year, Mike began working with and supplying a few online sellers in the US, Canada and Germany. Then he found a few shops who would stock his products. Mike began to learn what works and what doesn't from experience.
Last month, Mike called to say that he's handed in his notice at work! I cannot be more happy to hear this news! Another one of my friends is self-employed.
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