Have you heard about our September Challenge yet?  It’s time to get serious!  But serious work requires serious preparation.  Are you ready yet?  Here are 13 tips to help you get there!

Don’t be overwhelmed!  I don’t expect you to do all of these today.  In fact, over the next few weeks we will be covering these topics (and more!) in depth.  This is just a sample of what awaits!

1)  Clean your workspace!  A tidy, organized space makes for a more productive worker.  Remember to take pictures of your work, too!  We’re running some contests this month, and I happen to know that those before and after pictures could be lucrative for you…

2)  Organize your shipping supplies.  Group like items together, and find a home for them where they can be neatly displayed and easy to access.

3)  Take inventory of your shipping supplies.  While you’re straightening up, make note of what you are low on and order them now.  It really stinks to be out of your favorite size of polymailer, or the free priority mail boxes.  Stay ahead of the game!

4)  Think about the shipping ‘extras’.  Tissue paper, plastic bags, business cards, stickers.  Is it time to re-evaluate your methods?

5)  Along with re-evaluating comes re-pricing.  Have you compared prices recently?  Look around to make sure you’re still getting the best deal!

6)  Think about where you spend your time each day.  What is the hardest for you?  What takes the longest?  Where are you most in need of improvement?

7)  Go through existing inventory.  Before you list another thing, look at what you’ve already got listed.  Compare your physical inventory to your eBay/Amazon/website listings, and make sure everything is accounted for properly.  It is *so* easy to get off-track!

8)  Branch out!  If you’ve never sold on Amazon before, this is a great time to give it a try.  If you’d like to be able to sell toys at Christmas, you must meet Amazon’s sales requirements now (more on this tomorrow).

9)  Get your ducks in a row.  Your paperwork *must* be in order before the busy fall and holiday season is upon us.  Trust me – if you get it together now, you will be very glad you did come tax time!

10)  Consider your image.  Does your store represent you in the way you want to be represented?  Is it time for a makeover?  A new listing template or a new storefront design can bring a spark of energy to your store, and motivate you to take your business to the next level.  I don’t for a second believe that my cute storefront increased my sales.  But I definitely believe that it made me happy, thus inspiring me to list more and work harder.  And if you list it, they will come!

11)  Give us your feedback.  What do you need to change?  What are you looking for in this month’s challenge?  Please share below and we will use your input to tailor our blog posts this month.  We want to help YOU!

12)  Encourage your fellow storks!  We’re all in this together, and we ALL benefit from a positive, encouraging atmosphere.  HCTS is known for being friendly and helpful, and as Emeril would say, this month we’d like to kick it up a notch!

13)  Comment!  Every comment you make on our September blog entries will earn you an entry into a prize giveaway!  By reading the blog you will gain motivation and inspiration.  By commenting on the blog, you could gain even more!

As I mentioned earlier, don’t let all of this scare you off!  We will be writing about all of these topics (and more!) in depth over the next month, and we will be here to help you every step of the way.  We’ve got fun games along the way, and prizes that I know you’ll love.  It’s gonna be a great month!

And if you aren’t a HCTS member yet, what are you waiting for?  Please, click the link below and join us now – you won’t regret it!

Filed under: Listing Challenges, Tips and Tricks by BellaBuggy
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Has the month of May flown by as fast for everyone as it has for me? It’s been a whirlwind month so far and here we are with only 10 days left in the Eat 5 List 5 challenge.

So, how are you doing? Are you listing 5 every day or cramming them in at the end of the month (ahem, like me)? How ’bout the fruits & veggies (no cramming there, you have to eat those daily!)?

The final stretch of any challenge can be the hardest. The motivation sometimes dies down, you get tired of the “same ole, same ole” routine and it’s hard to keep up.

But don’t quit now! Remember, everyone who gets their 155 listings in the month of May will be entered into a drawing for a $50 Target gift card. And as a reward for eating so well through the month of May, everyone who gets all their fruits & veggies in will be entered into a drawing for a $10 Starbucks gift card.

So finish strong and stay motivated!

//

Filed under: Freebies, Giveaways and Prizes, Listing Challenges by jmk_akk
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Are you all exhausted after the 280 Challenge?  Do you have ANYTHING left unlisted in your house?  Or are you burnt out on listing and looking to tackle a new project?  If so, I believe Rebecca has just the challenge for you.

She posted on the forums about joining the Fly Lady program, and has invited our members to participate as well.  I plan to do it this month, since I signed up last month but was too busy listing to clean anything!

This could be you!

If you’d like to play along, your goal today is simple – shine your sink.  Get it positively sparkly and glowing, right down to every crack and crevice.  Bust out the bleach and a toothbrush and leave no crook or cranny untouched – by the time you’re done it should be glistening.

That’s it!

The idea is that one small change leads to other small changes, and they are easy to work into your routine.

I believe the same can be said for our eBay businesses.  Sometimes making one small change (like tackling Mt. Unlisted) can motivate you to make other changes as well.  In a previous post I wrote about my inventory storage system.  Once I bought these new bins, I was thrilled.  Ridiculously, embarrassingly thrilled.  The kind of thrilled that made me throw open my closet doors and stand back admiring  my beautiful new bins for hours minutes at a time.  More than once a day.  And my closet looked so good that I wanted to make something else look good, too, so I tackled my desk.  And my sewing room.

And now I need to do them all over again, but we won’t talk about that.

The point is, you can change.  You can change how you run your business, how you care for your house, how you care for yourself.  If you are active in our forums you’ve already seen that HCTS helps you in all of those ways (and more!), both personal and professional.  And if you aren’t active in the forums or are not yet a member, then don’t wait any longer.

Now is the perfect time to join us.  We’ll FLY through March together!

Filed under: Listing Challenges, Motivation by BellaBuggy
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ALMOST HOME!!

Only 3 days left, can you believe it? You girls are sooooo incredible, and have almost accomplished something truly amazing here. You had the ability to do this inside of you, all this time. Why did you ever doubt yourself?

TODAY’S CHALLENGE: A picture is worth a thousand words. Go for 5,000! Good pictures go sooooooo far in getting your item sold. Today, experiment with adding more pictures to something you normally wouldn’t take a lot of pictures of (a shirt, for example)-for today’s challenge, let’s go for 5 pictures. Normally, I would take just one picture of the shirt lying flat. If I were photographing this shirts for today’s challenge-I would 1)take the beforementioned photo, 2)take at least one close-up photo of an interesting detail, 3) take a photo of the shirt on a manne, form or model, 4) take a photo of the back of the garment, 5) take a close up photo of the label. This will only take about 1-5 minutes more in your photography and editing time, but it will go a long way in letting buyer really “know” what they are getting!

Filed under: Listing Challenges, Motivation, Tips and Tricks by Rebecca
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Can you believe that we only have 10 more days of the challenge? It’s unbelievable!! We are almost done. Today’s challenge will be about sharing your stats…but first, another inspirational poem for you!!

Words To Live By

It’s not how much you accomplish in life
that really counts,
but how much you give to other.

It’s not how high you build your dreams
that makes a difference,
but how high your faith can climb.

It’s not how many goals you reach,
but how many lives you touch.

It’s not who you know that matters,
but who you are inside.

Believe in the impossible,
hold tight to the incredible,
and live each day to its fullest potential.
You can make a difference
in your world.

~ Rebecca Barlow Jordan ~

What has impressed me THE MOST about this challenge is the way we have all encouraged each other. We have celebrated our sales, pushed one another to complete each day/week, and have just been soooooo positive in general. That’s why I picked this poem, for this line:

“It’s not how high you build your dreams

that makes a difference,
but how high your faith can climb.

It’s not how many goals you reach,
but how many lives you touch.”

Because at the end of the day, if you sell thousands of dollars a month on ebay, but have helped no one else along, it’s not fulfilling to your spirit. You girls TOTALLY get it. I love you!!

TODAY CHALLENGE:

Show me the money/listings! Post about how many listings you started with, and about how much you have sold since the start of the challenge. Doesn’t have to be an exact figure-just a rough guess is good.

me: I’ve done 187 listings since the start of the challenge, and I have had around $1000 in sales.

Filed under: Listing Challenges, Motivation by Rebecca
1 Comment »

Quick question…are you a Mardi Gras Gal or a Faustnaut Fillie?

or…

My PA peeps may be the only people who “get this”.

TODAY CHALLENGE: List something green, purple or gold. Alternatively, you may list anything with a donut on it!!

Filed under: Listing Challenges, The Daily Stork by Rebecca
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Day 15!!! We are “over the hump” and on our way home!! Isn’t this exciting?

Thank you all for sticking with me so far. I have tried to be “real” about my own struggles in completing the challenge. The mods and I definitely have a huge appreciation for the struggles you are going through-the running out of inventory, the late nights, and the interruption of family time. This challenge has been great for your businesses (mine included!!), but it hasn’t all been “sunshine and roses”. I’m not sure what the point is of my posting this, but maybe someone just needed to hear that today. :hug:

Anyhow-we are on the home stretch-after today, you have completed more challenge than you have left to finish!!! Doesn’t that feel great?

Today’s CHALLENGE: Did you know the Chinese have a New Year? It’s the year of the tiger, ladies!! I personally feel “It’s the year of the stork“…but since they already picked the dumb tiger, we’ll just go with that…ha ha! Today list something with a wild animal on it, or anything with an animal print.

Chinese New Year

2010 is the Year of the Tiger, which is also known by its formal name of Geng Yin.

Filed under: Listing Challenges, The Daily Stork by Rebecca
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Hi everyone!!

I’m away from the site pretty much this whole weekend while my girls have some swimming competitions. But, I just got an email from our graphic designer that she installed the new blog! How do you like it? The whole site should be transitioned to our new logo/look this coming week.

Have a wonderful weekend. And don’t forget to get your 70 listings done for this week by 6am Eastern Time on Monday!!

Filed under: General HCTS Info, Listing Challenges by Rebecca
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This morning, as I sit here with my coffee, I am looking through itunes for music to listen to while I list. If you’ve never listened to music while you are listing, in the spirit of doing new things this month, why don’t you try it? It’s not that weird. I mean, people listen to music to exercise, right? It’s motivational!

Today’s challenge is kind of different. I want you to pick three songs that make you feel like moving, or have goal-oriented inspirational lyrics. Post your choices, and then tell us WHY you picked them. Here are my three:

note: these choices are pretty embarrassing now that I think about it, two of them are kid’s songs!!

1. “All Star”, Smash Mouth. My kids heard this on the Shrek movie, and wanted it on their ipods. Somehow, it ended up on mine!! It’s a good “warm up” tune, lol. Profound lyrics include…”Doesn’t make sense not to live for fun, your brain gets smart, but your head gets dumb” Huh? That doesn’t make any sense!! But, girls, remember this…”only shootin’ stars break the mold!”

2. “The Good Life” by Hanna Montana. Confession time: I am shallow and materialistic. I like nice stuff, who doesn’t? Now, I’ll never be in Jimmy Choos …lol, but I do like to shop! Let’s face it. None of us do ebay for personal fulfillment or to help society, we do it for money. My dh, who is the sweetest, most quiet guy-rocks out to some EMINEM song about making money on his ipod before he goes to work some days!  We all have to feed our inner capitalist, huh? Plus this HM song has GREAT memories attached, Scarlet and I love to sing it together in the car. :heart:

3. The best motivational song of all time, in my opinion- “Unwritten” by Natasga Bedingfield. “Reaching for something in the distance, so close you can almost taste it” LOVE LOVE LOVE this song!!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!!

Filed under: Listing Challenges, Motivation by Rebecca
1 Comment »

These daily challenges have brought out *the absolute best* in so many of you! You don’t know what an encouragement it is to me to read your success stories.

But you girls know-that this challenge has not brought you success, right? Your successes have nothing to do with HCTS, the 280 Challenge, or little ole me. If you are confused by this statement, answer these questions:

• Who selected the item for resale? (hint: YOU!)
• Who did all the prep work for the listing-the ironing, the research, etc? (YOU!)
• Who took all those pictures? (clue: not me!!)
• Who listed the item? (that would be, YOU!!)
• Who built and maintained their ebay reputation? (YOU!)
• Who took care of the sale, and shipped the item? (wait for it…hmmmm…YOU!)

You are a person who makes things happen in your life, rolls with the punches, and keeps pushing through!!

You cannot tailor make the situations in life, but you can tailor make the attitudes to fit those situations before they arise.

~Zig Ziglar~

I know nothing about golf, but I love me some Zig Ziglar!

Look in the mirror, friend-you are awesome!

Challenge: List something with stripes or polka dots!

Filed under: Listing Challenges, Motivation by Rebecca
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