The 18-year-old Roanna Corling from South London once saw the potential in her teenage hobby of buying and selling clothes online. Now, years later, she successfully does business on the Web, and makes a lot of money.
The girl, who once registered on eBay to sell an unnecessary Pearl Jam CD in 2001, showed how she managed to earn £ 1 million. Today she even has a team of employees.
How it all began
Roanna Corling of Cobham, Surrey, UK, recalls the moment she decided to start her own business. This was years before she decided to quit her daily work in order to start a family and become her own boss.
“I worked as a sales representative, but my partner Martin and I were ready to start a family, so I quit in 2015,” Roanna said in an interview. - I began to actively earn money on eBay from the age of twenty. I set myself a budget of £ 200 and started looking for things that I could buy and sell for a profit, ”she continued.
“For example, I bought designer bags for £ 30 to sell for 80. I started visiting the markets - once I bought a lot of belly dance costumes that I immediately put up for sale online at a higher price.”
Single sales became massive
“Then everything went for real - I sold everything from perfumery to clothing. I visited company warehouses and bought up the rest of the goods to sell over the Internet. Before sending, I cut the price tags to increase the value of each position. Often I filled entire suitcases with stocks of things - the fact is that it did not bring me a lot of money, and the storage process became tedious. ”
Thus, Roanna continued to work, managing her project as an additional part-time job until 2015. It was then that she decided to start a family and devote more time to her. The girl began to buy rare items, and then sell them for profit.
She decided to make the business the main job.
“In 2015, I left my main job to do online business. "I wanted flexibility and freedom to start a family - and I knew that it would be impossible with my daily trips to the office in London."
Roanna said she began attending trade shows, where she established relationships with suppliers. She still uses some of these dating. It was then that the girl began to search mainly for clothing in the fashion of rockabilly, punk and the 1950s - which, according to her, from her personal experience was difficult to find on sale. It was these things that practically no one offered in ads.
And chose her own niche
“I noticed a gap in the market - that's why I chose this direction. From this initial concept, the Ro Rox Boutique online store was born. Today, the couple sells over 1300 units per week. So, the girl turned the invested one hundred pounds into 100,000 pounds in six months, and soon earned a million.
“I established several contacts with suppliers, and placed several minimum orders - about 8 items of different sizes, each item of £ 250. All products were brand new. Then I switched to eBay, started looking at the finished sales data and determined how much each product could be sold for to make a profit. This idea has led to great success. "
This idea led to great success.
Four years later, Roanne and her partner Martin had a warehouse in New Malden, South London, where they hire four people to manage their sales and transactions. The couple also has partnerships with factories around the world that produce their own goods. Their success was phenomenal.
Roanna just gave birth to a second child, who is now six months old, and she says that not having maternity leave is a huge advantage. The specifics of this business is such that it can continue to do it while at home with children. However, her husband Martin actually runs the business from now on, while the girl takes care of the children at home. Roanna herself deals directly with ads on the trading floor.
She has already earned a million
However, being pregnant, she reached her first million pound mark last year, the biggest milestone to date. "Last year, we earned more than a million pounds, and we just did not expect such a rapid increase in sales, demand was stable."
“Once you find something that works, it just takes time and dedication. As soon as I switched to a full-time job in my eBay store, I was able to make much more sales. The more time you have, the more products you can place for sale on the Internet and grow. ”
What does she advise others
Roanna explains her success by the fact that she is doing what she loves. Speaking of her advice for those who want to make money on eBay, the girl says that the secret is "not to be greedy."
“Do not be greedy for profit - start small and expect a small income. It is this initial success that will support you. Sell based on the quantity of goods - the more you can sell, the better, ”she says. “It could be anything.” For example, from an old box of DVDs to a pack of clothes or a new suitcase of branded items - the trick is to sell as much as possible.
And be consistent in your choice. The more competition you have, the lower your chances of selling, so try to reduce the business to those things that no one else offers. ”
In addition, Roanna advises placing ads only in auction format, and set a small initial cost for the lot. There is a clear explanation for this.
“Start your auctions with 99 pence - at least for a start. Ebay’s algorithms make customers less likely to see products with high starting prices, so aim for lower rates and keep track of their growth. ”
Finally, she says that it’s always worth having a memorable name on this resource - because that’s how customers will remember you and keep coming back for more. Her example just proved everything said.