Thai Sky Lanterns

I should start by saying it's not just about me

I spend my time between Australia , Asia and the UK and it all started when I opened a business in Asia with my website www.stormtrading.net . Selling goods manufactured here and exporting them worldwide.

It was really hard to get off the ground because of my lack of marketing skills but I trundled on until someone said why don't you try using Ebay as a complimentary tool for your business? That's when I opened the Australian Ebay store The Glass Votive Candle Shop to cater to the Australian wedding market and that's when things took off and the regular income started flowing. That allowed me to expand and add new products.

I've always had a passion for old Volkswagens so when I found a ceramics manufacturer that did VW coin banks and salt and peppers etc I opened the 2nd Australian eBay store Thailand’s Bargain Outlet and added much more VW products in the process. It took a while but that became a powerseller too and my business partner Eddie oversees the VW side of things.

We did the same thing in the UK with two more Ebay store's there for better exposure and set up a warehouse there so we can ship containers to the UK and post the heavy items from there to the UK customers. The staff there take care of all the packing and shipping.

The UK wedding site Quality UK Wedding Supplies is Also a powerseller and the last couple of months (writing this July 09) it's overtaken the Australian sales but I think that might end up being seasonal thing. The UK VW site is not a powerseller yet but It's nice to have that benchmark to aim for because it helps us focus on what we need to do to take it to the next level.

My Biggest Seller. Frosted Glass Votive Candles.

So we now have eight staff around the globe, picking packing shipping, even sewing some of the products we make. I can honestly say that ebay (and my team of staff) are the reason I can sit here at my home office in Asia without a shirt with the windows open and the fan blowing and be online for as long as I want, when I want and then go away and do something, like take the kids swimming or just pick up my guitar, whenever I want.

I do put in the hours though. Usually 5am to 2pm and then check the emails every 30min or so until bedtime so I don't miss a question that could convert to a sale.

Negative Feedback

I love what I do but I also respect it and although Ive had I think 6 negative (from about 6000 combined) feedback I can honestly say that 5 of them were from idiots and one was my fault for getting impatient with someone who sent about 20 emails. I think that's a pretty good number from that many so if your reading this because you're wondering if you want to risk purchasing something online, please rest assured that I love my business and by default I love all my customers so please feel free to always ask a question and I will never consider it stupid. There's no such thing as a stupid question. But they are the easiest to answer :).