Thinking About Selling On Ebay?

Here is some advice that I tried to post on one of the Ebay message boards but it wouldn't go through so I decided to post it here. If you're thinking about selling on Ebay, I hope this advice will help you.

... i havent started selling yet.. mostly im
trying to learn.......> here is some of my story - im a 24 yr old (almost 25)disabled person(woman)...> . - ive tried going to work, and going back to work and looking for work, finding work and getting fired from work.... in between college, hospital visits, and other things..... ive come to the conclusion recently that i am unable to hold a "normal" job - possibly forever.... but i really got interested in starting a home business - especially when i started talking to an online buddy of mine... we want to start an online store together. i have tons of ideas for our store.. (my part is gonna be mostly homemade soaps and gift baskets) and she has some items to sell as well.... but my only form of income is my disability checks.... and i have barely 50 a month left over to buy supplies... it is taking me forever to buy stuff... and im still not able to start...anyways.....here is my problem....im trying to find an
organization that gives grants to disabled people to help them start a home based business.. i could also use classes that teach all about running a business..anyone know of any such place???? (any one interested in donating to my business?? anyone have any ideas??????

Well its ironic that I saw your post because I do grant research for a living.

There are grant programs for people that want to start their own business and you are at a double plus because you are female.

Like the others have posted it would be a good idea for you to see what kind of benefits, disability and otherwise that you qualify for - the reason being the more benefits you qualify for the more money you will have for your business.

Getting a grant for an online store is not impossible because there have been quite a few grant recipients who have gotten grant monies for online ventures however its the specifics of the kind of online business that you want to start that has to be considered when looking for grant programs to help you start your online business.

You mentioned that you want to sell homemade soaps so you should look into grant programs relating to that such as the fact that you may be using certain ingredients in your soap that there may be a grant program to support that. There are grant programs for research which is something that you may be involved with while making your soaps, perhaps you could tie your soapmaking products with something where there is a grant program for it.

The same thing applies to your mention about adding additional gift basket products. Could they be tied in with a certain customer market like it being a product for disabled persons - something along the lines of that?

It might also behoove you to start a blog and the reason why I say that is because you would be able to put Google's Adsense on that blog and start earning income from that as well.

A "regular" job is a job that you earn money from even if other people don't consider it a "regular" job. I have a Working From Home Blog and you would be amazed at the many and different types of jobs that people have created for themselves!

Looking at your post I see just so many possibilities for you. When you become more familiar with Ebay and have had more experience with it you could start selling for others. As a matter of fact I remember watching a program where a woman with disabilities started selling on Ebay and she became so popular that she started selling for others and even started classes on teaching others with disabilities about how to sell on Ebay.

You have more possibilities and opportunities than you know!