Part-time entrepreneur wants to sell his T-shirts online. He should start by using eBay, and then create his own Web site.

QUESTION.
I own and operate a part-time business designing and selling T-shirts. I currently sell them through independent stores on consignment, but that’s going slow. The bigger stores won’t consider stocking my shirts. I've looked into selling them as a street vendor in my city, but that looked like it would be a big hassle. Some of my friends suggest that I consider selling my shirts over the Internet. Should I create my own retail Web site? Should I sell my shirts on eBay? Or both?

ANSWER.
I think your first step in going online is to learn how to sell items on eBay. Start selling things out of your garage. It takes a little study and practice to be good a moving product on eBay. Take a look at Chris Spencer's book for starters. See The eBay Entrepreneur. Then take a look at the following list and see if there is a book or two you might consider studying. See USING EBAY IN YOUR SMALL BUSINESS.

After you get good at selling product on eBay, then start selling your T-Shirts on eBay in order to make a profit. You'll probably need to prepare a business plan once the business starts to take off. And if you get successful selling on eBay, then you will probably want to start diverting sales from your eBay customers to an ecommerce site you'll create. That way you won't have to share as much of your profits with eBay as you did when you start doing all this.

But it is best to start selling on eBay first. I hope my comments are helpful. Good luck! Regards, -Jeff

Jeff Lippincott
SCORE.org Counselor
Princeton, NJ
scoreprinceton @ aol.com
www.scoreprinceton.org
www.jlippin.com