Are you considering taking your part-time reselling business full-time? Are you wondering about the pros and cons of being a full-time reseller? Let’s dive into both sides to help you make the best decision for your business.
Pros Of Reselling Full-Time
You Control Your Time
If you’re thinking about quitting your full-time job to flip full-time, know that you will not have to wake up at a specific time every day for work. You control your time. Decide when you want to work and when you don’t. Want to take off a random Wednesday to go for a hike or explore a new city? You’re in charge, so you can make that happen.
If you’re a parent, this is great because it gives you more time flexibility so you can volunteer at your kids’ school or spend time with them after they get home from school. You can be more present in their lives.
Reselling allows you to build your full-time schedule around other things happening in your life. And the definition of full-time may mean one thing to you and another to someone else. Full-time can be 40 hours a week, or it can be half of that selling high-profit items.
There’s No Limit To Profit
As a full-time reseller, you decide your profit limits. You invest the time and money you want to invest, and you can scale it to fit your needs. If you’re struggling to get items listed or photographed, you can outsource those tasks by hiring someone else. It will cut into your profits, but if you’re making enough sales that will allow you to generate more revenue, that might be the way to go.
You Don’t Have A Boss
If you’re flipping items, your only “boss” is the buyer, and your interactions with the buyer are relatively limited. They may ask you some questions or have follow-up questions or concerns, but you don’t interact face-to-face with them. They aren’t telling you when you need to work or where you need to work, and you don’t have annual performance reviews. Of course, you get rated on eBay, but if you’re delivering the item they’re expecting on time and in good condition, they usually don’t get upset with you.
Explore Your Interests
If you enjoy collecting and trading baseball cards, maybe that’s a flipping niche you can explore. Perhaps you enjoy collecting toys from the ‘90s because they make you feel nostalgic. If you have an interest, that is usually the best place to start when it comes to flipping, and getting into flipping full-time allows you to explore your interest even more.
Cons Of Reselling Full-Time
There Are Piles Everywhere
If you’re reselling full-time, you likely have many items around your house. There’s always a pile of things that need cleaned, fixed, and photographed. Items are waiting to be processed for shipping, and boxes are waiting to go out in the mail.
To some, it might seem unorganized, but you can create systems to keep the clutter in check. Create a space where you always take photos. Make sure the room has good lighting and everything is already set up, so you just bring the items in, take the picture and move on to the next thing.
Shelving can be a way to organize items. Some people like to package their items up in the box and put them on a shelf until they sell, and will indicate what the thing is on the box. This method speeds up the packing process on the back end too.
You don’t have to get a storage unit when you’re first starting out or ever, but that helps some resellers stay organized by separating business and personal space.
While clutter can be a con, it’s one that’s easily addressed with some planning and figuring out what works best for you.
No Paid Benefits
As your own boss, there won’t be any built-in paid benefits such as parental leave, sick time, vacation time, or retirement plans. That doesn’t mean you can’t have those things while reselling; you just have to plan for them. If you want to take off one week, maybe you work a little extra the week before. You’ll have to look into setting up your retirement options too. Flipping is an activity that you can continue doing into retirement to supplement what you’ve saved.
While reselling full-time has some cons, the pros outweigh them. If you’re ready to stop juggling a regular job and flipping side hustle, consider making the jump to full-time reselling.
