MoreHere’s to the Holiday Season!
- Special Announcement:Â Interview with Griff this Tuesday 11/21
- Feature Article: A Five-Point Plan to Fix Your Workflow Bottleneck
- The Queen’s Update: LAX Boot Camp
- Lynn Recommends: Go Antiques DVD
This ezine is published twice a month.
November 17, 2006 Volume II, Issue 16
Hi friends,
How are you? I hope you are gearing up for the holiday season and have tons of stuff listed on eBay. I have to say that the last few weeks have been unusually slow for me with my auction formatted items. I hope that it picks up soon! However, my store has still been performing at a stellar level so it has all been good. Watch for my new special report–“15 things you must know and DO to run a successful eBay Store” in the next few weeks. For more information and to pre-order it at a special discounted price please click here.
I have some exciting news to share. I will be on WS Radio with Griff again next week. Just in time for the holidays. Don’t miss out–read more about it below.
As you all know, Mo
(Maureen) gave her notice about a month ago. I was just getting ready to post an ad on Craig’s List when my mom decided to take over. It has turned out great and I am so happy to have her here! Today’s article about bottlenecks has come about because of our brainstorming. And many of you have been asking me to write about how your work area should flow–so here it is!
Finally, don’t foget to check out the progress report from my LAX eBay Boot Camp (the last one of 2006). We had a blast and I can’t wait to share some of our stories. Also, we did our follow-up teleseminar last night and it was great to visit with my graduates!
Happy eBaying,
Lynn Dralle, “The Queen of Auctions,” Creator of the best-selling six-week “How to Sell on eBay” eCourse.
I got an email this week that Griff wanted to have me back on his eBay radio show. How exciting! I can’t wait to spend about 10 minutes with Griff and Lee next Tuesday, November 21st at 1:08 pm Pacific Standard Time.
Please go to www.wsradio.com and listen to it live. We are going to be talking about the holiday rush on eBay (among other things). We may even chat about that Alfa Romeo that is still in my garage!
“A Five-Point Plan to Fix Your Workflow Bottleneck”
by Lynn A. Dralle, “The Queen of Auctions”
My mom’s first day at work was Tuesday, October 24th. The first thing we did was to take a look at my current workflow setup and realize that it had turned into a montster! It was literally out of control! I had known this for some time and was considering leasing office space. I realized that this would add too much expense to my overhead so I had started shopping around to buy a residential property that I could use as an office.
My mom and I first analyzed our work areas (of which you should have 5). Please analyze your own work areas and draw a floor plan.
- Staging Items to be Put on eBay
- Writing up merchandise
- Photographing area
- Storing auction and store items
- Shipping area
When I originally set up my rec room/eBay office (600 square feet) I was only handling about 200 items at a time. I did not have my eBay store going full force and our flow was just fine. As my eBay business grew and grew–(Now we handle about 4,000 items at auction and in our eBay store)–I realized that I had created a monster!
Check out the mess!
- My Staging area for new merchandise was not in one place anymore. I had 3 large racks of new items in my rec room office, 5 boxes on the floor of my dining room and another 120 boxes in the garage.
My brother was visiting and said, “It has finally happened. You have become Grandma and your family is living in the antiques store.” Yikes! My worst nightmare. I knew then that something must be done and quickly.
- My area for writing up merchandise (formerly a table in the rec room office) was now my dining room table.
- My outdoor photography studio was still just perfect! A girl has to get lucky sometimes.
- My storage area for items currently at auction or currently for sale in my eBay store was no longer in my rec room office. I still had items stored in the rec room office but also all over my golf cart garage and in an old empty freezer in the other half of my garage. Not a good thing!
- My shipping area had slowly moved from inside the rec room office to the golf cart garage. Maureen was constantly running back and forth from the rec room office (where her computer was) to the golf cart garage. Now, my house is not small and this was taking hours of valuable time.
After doing an analysis of each work area, my mom and I came up with a Great Five-Point Plan. I encourage you to do the same for your work areas.
- Staging area for new incoming merchandise would be moved out of the rec room office and out of my dining room and it will now take over the entire golf cart garage. This made perfect sense for us because when I come home from garage saling, I can just roll up the garage door and set the boxes inside on a super long table that we purchased.
- Writing up merchandise will no longer be done at my dining room table. We are not living in an antiques store anymore–Thank Goodness! Writing up of merchandise will be done in the rec room office (where it belongs). We have designated three shelves and a work table for this task.
- The Photographing station remains the same!
- All inventory (either up at auction or listed in my eBay store) will be stored in the rec room office. To accomplish this, we knew that major changes would have to take place. I had my desk and computer and my assistant’s desk and computer in this area. We realized that my desk, all my reference books, my greeting card company items, and all my paperwork did NOT have to stay.
Because of my Dralle Method of listing items, I don’t have to be anywhere near the merchandise and I could actually list from another part of the house. The reason I had purchased such a large house (4,000 square feet) was so that I could work from home and be near my kids. We have 5 bedrooms and two of them were being used as guest rooms. Guess what? One of the guest rooms was soon to become my very own QUIET and clutter free office. What a revelation!
My mom and I started searching for office furniture and went all over town. It was quite pricey. There was an ad in our local paper for a beautiful 11 piece set but it was located in Yucca Valley and they wanted $3,500. Yucca Valley is about an hour away, so we called the gal and she sent photos and measurements. It appeared that it just may work. And I kept telling my mom, “I have a feeling about the Yucca Valley set”. Anyway, we ended up getting the set for $3,000 plus $50 delivery. As you can see from the photo, it was like the set was made for my room. I am so excited to be working in a clutter free “executive” zone. Life is great!
My new office
- The shipping area had to move from the golf cart garage and we wanted it back inside in the rec room office with all the merchandise that was being shipped. Makes a lot of sense doesn’t it? To accomplish this, we got rid of a couch and added a long table in front of the hearth. My dad and brother were out visiting so we got them to help install our Packing Peanut Holder and a bar to hold bubble wrap. Check it out! It is an awesome improvement.
The new wrap station
(The pink stool in the photo came from my grandma and was a fixture in the shop for probably 50 years! It is dangerous–please don’t step on it!)
I encourage you to analyze your working areas and come up with your five-point plan for improvement. Saving hours every day in wasted footsteps can add up to a lot of money in your pocket. Good Luck to you!
WANT TO SEE MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE?
See Lynn’s past ezines here.
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR ON YOUR WEBSITE? Yes, you may just as long as you include this complete blurb with it: The Queen of Auctions and eBay Power Seller, Lynn Dralle, publishes “eBay Tips & Tricks” a weekly ezine with 8000+ subscribers. If you’re ready to jump start your eBay business, make more money and have more free time, get your FREE tips now at www.thequeenofauctions.com
My three-day eBay Boot Camp at LAX on November 3rd, 4th and 5th was a huge success. We all had a blast and learned a ton!
Here is a note from one of my students…
Hi Lynn,
I just wanted to extend a huge THANK YOU to you, Lee and your mom for such an inspirational ebay Boot camp. I have attended other seminars but never have I had such a hands-on experience where I left with a sense of accomplishment and the UTMOST confidence that I will succeed. Your method of teaching is so effective, the way you taught us step by step EXACTLY what to do and then actually had us DO what you taught us – as you mentored us through the entire process!!! It was just amazing!! I learned so much!!! Your class is invaluable! You were right…you don’t charge enough!!….
I feel like I’ve made so many new friends. The relaxed atmosphere really made it easy to get to know everyone. By the third day I felt we were one BIG happy family!!! It was just an AWESOME experience! I didn’t want to leave to catch my plane and I cried as I walked to the shuttle.
-Cathi Lender, Florida
Another of my students, Elizabeth Van Pelt from San Diego, sent in this note…
“I can’t believe I got the vase — I was # 6 and was sure it would be gone. I remembered from your teleconference that you said you would have a couple of Cloisonne vases that would be worth a lot, and I was sure the others would have remembered and snagged it before I got it 
Lucky me!
Thanks for all your great help. I think my hubbie is getting tired of hearing your name He must think I’ve joined a cult or something – LOL”
–Elizabeth
As some of you may remember, I set up a faux garage sale for my students. Elizabeth was number six in line to shop it and she snagged a beautiful Japanese Cloisonne vase that sold for–you won’t believe this–$315.00 on eBay last week. Congrats to Elizabeth! Here is a photo of the eBay page.
Click the image to see the live page on eBay
I did a live teleseminar last night with these awesome graduates. It was great to hear their success stories, challenges and questions. To pre-order a copy of our conference call (almost two hours of audio) at a special early bird discount, click here.
eBay Power Seller and third generation antiques dealer, Lynn Dralle, is the creator of the online e-course “How to be up and selling successfully on eBay in less than 6 weeks”.
If you liked today’s issue, you’ll love this step-by-step course that is guaranteed to be the most complete and enjoyable guide to selling on eBay that MAKES YOU MONEY.
Read what students are saying about it here.
The Queen of Auctions also offers free articles, free teleseminars, how-to-books, tracking guides, DVDs, eBay Boot Camps and other resources to help entrepreneurs make their eBay business a six-figure sales machine. Click here to learn more.
The Queen of Auctions/All Aboard Inc.
PO Box 14103
Palm Desert, CA 92255
760-340-6622
Lynn@TheQueenofAuctions.com
My friend, Jim Kamnikar, owner of GoAntiques.com and PriceMiner-(my favorite research site) has just released a really neat DVD called “An Insiders Guide to Antiques and Collectibles.”
I watched it the other night and it is really interesting and informative. I encourage you to check it out. For more information click here.
The DVD features dealer experts on a variety of Art, Antiques and Collectibles topics. Host Jim Kamnikar takes you straight to the source to learn what to look for in each specialty discussed. Learn how to use cutting edge technology to assist in the process, keeping you one step ahead when buying – whether adding to your collection or sourcing to sell.
Featured Dealers and Topics:
- David Crockett, Artifacts – Tips when buying Paintings
- Ray Kisber, Ray Kisber Designs – Modernism and Art Deco
- Alan Grodsky, Adele and Alan Grodsky – Tiffany, Pairpoint and Handel Lamps
- Michael McClintock, Artful Eye – American paintings featuring New Hope artists
- Jack McAuliffe, Fancy That Antiques – American Art Pottery and Art Glass
- Aurora Dugan, Toulouse Antique Gallery – Fine Antiques including Linke furniture, Dresden and Royal Vienna
- Michael James, The Silver Fund – Georg Jensen Silver
Another of my friends, Julia Wilkinson, author of the super cool book The eBay Price Guide (click here) has also just announced a really neat section on her website.
Here is what she has to say about it…“Need a one-stop-shopping place to find newsletters, blogs, communities and other resources about auctions, eBay, and selling online, all on one convenient page? Check out the new site, Julia’s Auction Links here.
And I am featured! Too Cool.
Happy Buying & Selling!
Lynn
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Visit my eBay auctions.
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Lynn is an experienced eBay Power Seller, author and teacher. If you want to know the eBay tips, tricks and tools that Lynn uses for buying and selling at online auction click here.
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