I occasionally dive into different topics and knowledge levels on this blog.  I’ve discussed first-timer topics as well as getting started book scouting to more intermediate topics such as Fulfillment by Amazon.  I recently had a request to start from the beginning on just what it takes to get started selling books on the Internet.  I thought this was a great idea because I’ve never really taken a step back and wrote out everything that it took me to really get a strong position selling books online.  There are probably dozens of different ways that you can get started in this business but I’m going to take a trip down memory lane and discuss in a series of upcoming posts about what it took for me to get from thinking that I might be able to make some money selling my used books to where I am today with a part time employee, an inventory of 5,000+ books and growing and being able to let my wife stay at home with our daughter.

Online bookselling will not make you rich neither will it give you fame, but what it will do is establish a part time (or full time) business that will give you just about as much back as you put into it.  There are many strategies that you can employ and processes that you can hone to really take advantage of the business and to make maximum profits and that’s why I love it.  Being able to take what the general public thinks is something that has no value, turn it around and makes thousands of dollars a month is priceless to me.

This first post in the series will concentrate on the very first few steps that you need to take to get started and establish your online bookselling business.  I will briefly go into a few topics that I believe are the most important when just starting out and try to alleviate some of the pain that I went through whenever I was first starting.

1. Overcoming Overwhelm – I know this is a pretty generic statement and is not that specific but I believe this is the most important first step that you can take.  As with any new adventure that may prove to be very successful, it’s likely not going to be an overnight thing.  You’re not going to automatically start making $10K/month selling used books.  It takes time.  That is the beauty of the online used book business.  You can take it as fast or as slow as you’d like without too much risk at all.  Don’t get overwhelmed when you start thinking that you don’t know how to sell books on Amazon, don’t have the first clue about selling books on eBay or don’t have an idea on how much books are worth.  You’ll get there.  I did and thousands of other people did too.  Take it one step at a time.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?

2. Don’t spend any money on inventory – This business can be started by anyone because of it’s low risk, low capital potential.  You can literally get started for nothing at all and start making money within a few days and be profitable!  That’s how I got started and how I believe you should too.  Everyone has books laying around.  They are almost as ubiquitous as writing utensils.  This means that you have FREE (sorta) inventory in your house right now!  Why not take advantage of that and get some practice in listing them on Amazon?  I’m the type of person that learns by doing even at the cost of a few bucks.  When I started out, I was selling books for $20+ and at the same time books where I was actually losing money because of all the commissions.  I didn’t notice until a few days later and some quick calculations that I was actually losing money on some of those books.  I learned a good lesson and from then on, learned all about Amazon’s commissions.  The only time I really recommend spending a few bucks in on educational material.  I don’t mean to make this sound like a commercial but I really do recommend picking up a copy of my eBook Used Books:Big Business.  It will help you get started and off on the right foot.  If you don’t want an eBook, then please go to Amazon and do a search for “selling used books” and check what it has to offer.

3. Start learning Amazon – Amazon is the biggest used book marketplace and will be the biggest source of revenue for you.  Since it is the biggest, learn it first, get comfortable and really learn the fees they charge, how to list your books there and the ins and outs of the seller account that they provide.  Once you start getting sales, you’ll then be forced to learn how to ship out books properly and do quick order fulfillment.  You’ll learn real quick if a customer leaves you some negative feedback too.

4. Crunch the Numbers – Once you start selling a few books, you’ll soon see that you have a lot of different expenses.  Expenses such as cleaning supplies, packaging, postage, commissions to Amazon et al will be the norm and may get out of control pretty quickly if you don’t keep tabs on them.  I still do, to this day, get overwhelmed with the actual selling piece and don’t keep a firm grip on how much money is actually going out the door.  By creating a spreadsheet or some other form of organization for all the money that you’re paying you’ll begin to see what books may not be worth selling because you’re getting killed on postage, how to package cheaper, etc.  Keep paying attention to expenses because even though you may be making some good money in sales, you are bound to always have expenses bringing up the rear that you may forget about.

That’s it for the first post in the series “The First Few Steps”.  In this post, I concentrated a lot of non specifics but topics that are very important nonetheless.  I hope to dive a little deeper into the specifics that you need to look out for next time.  It’s always good to see the forest for the trees, right?