I’ve had a pretty rough last 3 weeks.  A customer gave me her son’s Ford F-150 Power Wheels to sell. I listed it on Craigslist and a bunch of people emailed me since it was near the holidays. That was the good part ,but the bad part is that sometimes I can’t email them immediately. Right when I email them back they start saying that they “already got another one” or ” I got a better price” or they say that they’re “going to come tomorrow” but then they don’t show up. That happened like 5 times.

Finally after that happened several times, someone actually did come. When he came I was so happy that I was going to sell it, but when I demonstrated it for him, the radio stopped working and we couldn’t get it to work at all, so I had to take $20 off the price for him to still buy it.

After I sold it, I called my customer to see if she would take $10 less than our agreed upon amount and she said yes, but she also sounded sad and disappointed.  She said I should’ve asked her before I sold the Power Wheels for $20 less.   My mom asked me what I was going to do about this — give her the amount we originally agreed on or the $10 less (which would mean I make less profit even after doing a lot of work). I told my mom I would go ahead and give her the amount we originally agreed on.

My mom taught me a lesson about customer service and I learned that I should do my best for my customers. When a customer is sad or mad with you, they might not want to work with you again or you might get bad publicity. If you make your customer happy, they will work with you again and might tell other people about you too! When I surprised her and gave her the money we agreed on she was happy with me and said I didn’t have to do that but I was a really good businesswoman and she would be happy to work with me again.

I’m still trying to sell my sister’s Power Wheels. I have a lot of emails and calls but nobody has shown up to buy it it. I hope I sell it before Christmas!

Have a Merry Christmas!!!!!!

Business is slower and I want it to go faster.

BUT I feel great that I finally made a sale since starting middle school!  I sold a diamond bracelet on eBay. I want to give a shout out to Miss Julie in Georgia who bought the bracelet!

Middle school is really giving me a rough time.  I have advanced classes for the first time and I have a lot of hard classes and have so much homework. My grades are pretty good and are getting better though. I have A’s so far in all my classes except for Earth Space Science.

The good news is that I got an email from a nice woman who is a friend of my mom’s on Facebook. I might be helping her sell a grandfather clock. I would really like to help her!

I am still working on selling the Barbie Jeep. I had a buyer but she never came to pick it up so I am re-listing it.

Hope to have more to share really soon!

Sorry that I didn’t post anything for a month. I traveled at the end of the summer, went to music camp, and had a lot of stuff going on.

Now it’s Back To School! Ugh!

Ugh! School has started.

I am in the sixth grade.  I am happy that I am in middle school now but all the homework is slowing me down from my business time.  I have a lot of projects and too much homework!  I didn’t get to sell anything from Mr. Hector. He is the neighborh who wanted me to barter his items last month. I feel bad that he didn’t get any money and I didn’t get any money either.  I think he was disappointed. I am surprised that none of his items sold. He told me that I should post the items in the morning or the afternoon after school because that is when people look the most on Craigslist.  I think that might help me, but it is hard because I have homework and in the mornings I have to get ready for school.

I talked to my mom because I needed a plan.  We agreed that I could do my business mostly on the weekends and sometimes I can do it in the afternoons after school if I can finish my homework faster. I really want to still do this business.

I have a Power Wheel jeep, some crystal glasses, and a diamond bracelet to sell now.  I want to get these things sold fast so I better get to work.

I went to Georgia to visit my family on vacation. It was fun.  When I was there one of my aunties gave me a gold bracelet to sell and my other auntie gave me two printers.

When I got back I printed some flyers and put them on the neighbor’s doors with my friends. I got a call from Mr. Hector and he said he had a leather jacket, military bags, and a printer.  I went to his house and he told me that what he wanted was some home theater speakers instead of the money.  He suggested that I do some bartering with some of his items.  I didn’t know what bartering was, but I asked my mom to explain.  Bartering is actually when you trade with someone.  My mom had me watch a show called Barter Kings to help me understand. I thought it was so cool because they were trading little stuff that cost only $100 for more valuable things that cost like $300 and $400.  If I do bartering with some of Mr. Hector’s items, I can make even more money and still get some speakers for him.

When I was with Mr. Hector, he said he was excited because I am a kid doing this. He said he is going to teach his daughter to be an entrepreneur too.  She is only 4 now. He also showed me this book and said I was doing guerilla marketing. I thought he was saying gorilla marketing! My mom told me to look it up and I found out that guerilla marketing is using easy and inexpensive ways of marketing.

Now I have research to do for my aunties and for Mr. Hector’s stuff and going to try doing some bartering!

Finally I got my business cards! I’m sooooooooooo happy and today I’m going to make my own flyers for my neighborhood.  It’s going to be different than the flyers that are not going in my neighborhood because I want to make sure that my neighbors know that I actually live in the neighbor.  I think it will be easy for them to just come over and I think some people may say “Oh I know that girl!” and want to do business with me. I’m also waiting for my T-shirt to arrive. I can’t wait to see it.

I didn’t get to sell the washing machine and the dryer on Craigslist. I tried for two weeks but the price was too high so I talked to Mr. Vince and he said he didn’t want the price lower so I’m not going to be able to sell them for him.  Sometimes I can’t sell the items that my customer wants to sell. That has happened a few times so far, but I always do the best I can for them.

I did get a call from Miss Patty who has some collectible items. They are porcelain statues by Lladro. They are really expensive. I already did the research and I found that they have been selling on Ebay, so I should be able to sell them pretty easily for her.

I also did some videos with my mom for her Freedom Chasers Challenge.  The 30-day challenge to all the adults is “Can You Sell More Than a 5th Grader?” and I got to share some of the tips that are working for me in my business. You should check it out!

I’m glad I’m doing this business.  I’m making a lot of money and my business is going AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!