Guardian Business Sense Competition update

by Chris Dawson

This post was written in March 2007; specific information contained within it may be out of date.

The five finalists from the Guardian Business Sense Competition spent a day at eBay UK head office in Richmond for some training. Andrew Dudley of postalsupplies was on hand to give some advice.

Establishing an accounting system at the start, to keep finances under control. Captions for listings, which cost extra, are rarely worth bothering about, and item titles should use descriptive words rather than “look” or “wow!” or the @ symbol. Noone’s going to search on that,one of eBay’s strengths is that its pages do well on search engines.

Matt Priddle from eBay also warned new sellers need to pay attention to eBay’s rules: The worst form of marketing is to spend time getting things right, then get suspended. I guess the last thing eBay want is a repeat of godblessthismess who got suspended from eBay whilst being featured on The Money Program last year.

The five competitors all have very different businesses and have all now opened eBay shops:

Phyllis Avery dollydoodle2007: Dolls containing a card, on to which children record any negative thoughts or worries, as well as wishes.

Karl Anderson onegiantstepfootwear: Fashionable footwear for people with large feet.

David Hallworth 100percent_pure_cotton: Quality cotton school uniforms

Joe Williams laptopscrapyard: Reclaimed working parts from broken laptops

Diane Davidson between-the-trees: Top-quality hammocks from Mexico

Each competitor has some eBay experience under their belts now, they’ve been on buying sprees to gain enough feedback to open their eBay shops. Currently as sellers only betweenthetrees are yet to receive their first feedback as a seller. My hot tip to win the competion, laptopscrapyard, has already amassed a feedback score of 33, 17 of which are from satisfied customers. I have to admit I’m biased as it’s the area of eBay I trade in. Those Mexican hammocks are gorgeous though!

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Author: Chris Dawson
Posted at: Friday, March 30th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Filed Under Uncategorized
 

Comments

2 Responses to “Guardian Business Sense Competition update”

  1. Pimp My Strides on April 6th, 2007 1:55 pm

    Looking at those hammocks makes me miss mexico so much! If i had a pair of trees i’d get me one and chill out in the summer shade.

  2. eBay Guardian Business Sense competition results : TameBay on May 29th, 2007 5:14 pm

    [...] THe Guardian Business Sense Challenge 2007 winners have been announced. As predicted at the start of the competition the overall winner was laptopscrapyard aka Joe Williams who set out selling parts scavanged from broken laptops and fully-refurbished machines. Of course he had a head start as he already ran an IT support business and set up his eBay laptopscrapyard as a second income stream. [...]

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