Good things are still happening with my little ebay business. I made as much with it as I would have if I had a real job late last fall. That was a great surprise because the retail jobs I applied for didnt work out. One didnt offer enough money and the other quit hiring because of the economy. Actually, this has been great in retrospect, because I can fit in the work for Gear Sherpa any time so it doesnt interfere with class. And, it's flexible, so I can work more on weeks like this when I've got time off from school. Tents have turned out to be good items. I've got a system set up now to repair them - patched 7 holes in a tent this morning. And, they still seem to get a good price on ebay despite the recession. Gear Sherpa is probably the most overmanaged business of this size. I've had a great time applying on very small scale what I've learned in the MBA program - setting up accounting systems, upgrading my IT for more efficiency, expanding my number of bidders with some marketing concepts, and using some operations analysis to find my most profitable activities for business focus. Possibly obsessive? Dunno. One really funny and possibly sad experience is how much my customers seem to love me in their comments and reviews. I try to communicate very clearly and I'm proactive to clarify shipping and let them know when they should expect it. That apparently is enough to really make them happy.
