The dead zone… it’s coming

If you are selling children’s clothing/items… you have probably noticed a slump in sales. If you haven’t, it is coming. After Halloween, the season for selling holiday clothing is very short. Most parents are already getting their Christmas portraits taken for holiday cards (unless you are not “most parents” like me ;-) The next selling season is for spring items and it starts in late January.

So – what do you do during this slow time?

Plan! This is the perfect time plan for the next selling season so you are ready to go.  If you are a new seller, sometimes it can take a while to get into a groove and find what works for you… Now is the time!

Inventory: If you don’t have inventory yet – a great place to look is the thrift shop. MANY people donate unused items… especially at the end of the year so they can take advantage of the tax benefits. If you already have inventory, it is likely stored. Pull out all your spring and summer stuff and sort it. I like to sort by size so I can pull together outfits and sets/lots.

Picture: Go ahead and start picturing your items. Sorting and picturing take the most time because, if you don’t have a special set up that is up all the time, you have to pull everything out every time you go to picture some items.

List: You can even get your listings done! I use TurboLister and although I don’t pay the extra to schedule my listings, I do get them all ready and then just push some to auction once I’m ready to go. Turbo List is a free program from eBay. Another absolutely amazing program is Auction TNT – They are offering a $1 trial here: www.jennihunt.com/recommends/auctiontnt.htm 

The more you do now – the less you’ll have to do once the selling season… I know the holidays can keep everyone super busy – but, you’ll be super happy later even if you do a little bit now.

[I should mention that if you are selling toys this holiday season - the season is just about to begin! You can learn more about selling toys at www.holidaytoyguide.com]

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