Every small business person needs to see the tides of change. They should be agile enough to set sail in a new direction before the tsunami hits.

The trick is to know what changes are small ripples and which ones turn into mega waves…..

But, this post isn’t about business metaphors it’s about how I’m trying to keep up a steady stream of income. What my next business steps are going to be.

Currently my eBay store is my main source of income. And the tides of change seem to be coming. So, let me get to the point.

I’ve been very concerned about the upcoming PayPal and eBay split. That, combined with a very ho-hum Christmas selling season, has finally pushed me out of my eBay comfort zone.

I’m really not sure that eBay will get it’s MoJo back as my friend Cliff Enico writes (although I am hopeful).

To stay ahead of the changes I’ve decided to look at other online venues.  So far here’s what I explored.

Step One:

I started with Bonanza. Earlier in 2014 I experienced a few days where sales were flooding in from Bonanza. Then it stopped. Shortly there after I received an email from them promoting a new upgraded service/subscription. It seems that flood of sales was linked to their buying Search Engine Placement.  I didn’t take them up on the upgrade right away. Maybe I should have? Instead, I decided to upgrade my Bonanza booth in December when I downgraded my eBay store subscription. I decided to use the extra funds from the eBay downgrade to fund the Bonanza upgrade. I figured I’d give Bonanza a trail – one quarter – to see how/if sales improved. So far, they haven’t. In fact this quarter is down (for sales) on Bonanza compared to last year at this time (while my eBay sales are up year compared to last year at this time).

Step Two:

Next, I’m going to give Etsy another try. But, to be honest, I’m not sure the sales will be there either. To do Etsy correctly I’ll need to rethink my photos and rethink what to source to sell. Not that I’m opposed to it, if I see the reward of more sales. From what I’ve seen so far Etsy has a younger buyer – with fewer funds and slightly different tastes in collectibles. With a younger, less monied, buyer things seem to go for less compared to eBay. So – the question for me is: Will I have to work harder to sell more at a lower price?

Step Three:

What about Amazon, you say? I’m always on the hunt for products to list in the Amazon catalog – that will never change. The trick is finding items I can buy so cheaply that I can afford to pay Amazon’s stiff listing fees. (Which, by the way, is one of my major concerns for the future of eBay.  EBay is starting the split with all of PayPal’s debut – I’m sure the sellers are in for fee increases from both companies). Currently, with the way I product source, I find very few products that are profitable to sell on Amazon. Perhaps I need to lower my earning expectations?

Moving In A Different Direction:

All that said and done…. I still don’t feel I’m moving in the right direction. I don’t think following the crowd to Amazon FBA – or the heard of eBay naysayers to unheard of platforms or my own website is the right move for me.

So, after thought, and a look at my passions – I’ve decided to try moving in a slightly different direction.

One such love is photography. A few years ago, when I thought I had more time than I did, I started submitting some of my photos to a few online stock photography sites. I enrolled, uploaded a few to the photos, and then sort of forgot about it. Over the last few years I’ve gotten payments into my PayPal account fairly regularly.  On top of that, a couple of the photos have been published in books – and I’ve gotten the photo credit. To me – that’s the ultimate!

With that kind of success with very little effort (or what felt like it because I enjoy photography so much) – I thought that if I put a little more time/effort into it – that Stock Photography could be a plan B – if anything happens to my main source of income.

Over the next few weeks, months, I thought I’d post about my new venture – mostly as notes to myself – but also to share if anyone is interested.

In the next post, I’ll start with a basic outline or simple business plan on how I think I will  make it work.

Please feel free to follow along.