Yo yo yo! Reader,

There was a time when a quiet week on eBay meant the business was quiet.

This week reminded me that those are now two very different things.

Traditional eBay sales were slow.

Really slow at times.

There were mornings where I walked into the warehouse, checked the numbers and thought… where is everyone?

And yet, somehow, this was one of those weeks where it felt like there was more happening inside the business than ever.

New staff.

New opportunities.

More eBay Live shows.

More consignment.

More conversations about where this business could go next.

And a lot of thinking about one particular idea:

How do I continue building a moat around this business?

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Snapshot

This week was busy.

Not necessarily because we were drowning in orders from the normal eBay store, but because there were so many moving pieces happening behind the scenes.

• We brought another person into the team whose main focus will be helping with eBay Live postage.
• We had meetings around expanding some of our consignment relationships.
• We got approval to start moving more consignment stock through eBay Live.
• We started planning another Live show for Tuesdays.
• There were conversations around textiles and some completely different potential opportunities.
• We had more cameras coming through.
• We started selling some different categories like Pyrex.

And somehow, amongst all of that, we still had to actually run the business.

It was one of those weeks where there wasn't necessarily one giant moment.

There were just a lot of small pieces starting to connect.

Behind The Scenes

One of the biggest changes this week was bringing another person into the team.

Their main responsibility is going to be helping with eBay Live postage.

Tuesday was their first day.

I walked them through the process, showed them what needed to happen and let them get stuck into it.

And they finished the postage quicker than me.

Which is exactly what I want.

I've said this before, but hiring people isn't about finding someone who can simply copy exactly what I do.

Ideally, I want people who can eventually do parts of the business better than me.

Because every task that stops depending entirely on me gives me some capacity back.

This week, instead of spending that time packing Live orders, I was able to work on cameras, prepare future shows, deal with consignment stock, attend meetings and work through some of the bigger opportunities sitting in front of us.

That's leverage.

It doesn't always feel like leverage at the beginning.

When you bring someone new into a business, you're usually slower at first.

You're teaching.

Explaining.

Answering questions.

Creating processes.

Checking work.

But then eventually something changes.

The job you used to automatically think:

"I need to do that."

Becomes:

"That's already being handled."

And suddenly your job changes too.

The Lesson

Growth often creates problems before it creates freedom.

I think that's something that gets overlooked.

You hire someone because you want more time.

But initially they require more of your time.

You add another sales channel because you want more revenue.

But now you have another system to manage.

You bring in more stock because you want more opportunity.

But now you've got more stock that needs processing.

You start saying yes to bigger opportunities.

And suddenly your calendar starts filling up.

There is always this awkward middle period where the new system exists…but the benefit hasn't fully arrived yet.

That's where I feel like we are with quite a few things right now.

We're building capacity.

We're adding people.

We're expanding Live.

We're increasing consignment.

We're experimenting with different categories.

We're having conversations around opportunities that may or may not turn into something.

Some of it will work.

Some of it probably won't.

But the important thing is that we're continuing to build.

What I'm Thinking About

I've been thinking a lot lately about building a moat around the business.

Essentially:

How do we build something that becomes more resilient as the business grows?

Because markets change.

Platforms change.

Consumer spending changes.

Categories go through cycles.

Algorithms change.

Competition changes.

And if your entire business depends on one thing always working exactly the way it currently works, you're eventually going to have a problem.

This week was actually a really interesting example.

Our normal eBay sales were quiet.

If that was the only thing we had going on, I probably would've been having a very different week.

Instead, eBay Live was performing well.

We were selling cameras.

We had consignment stock moving.

We were bringing in different categories.

And we were working on other opportunities in the background.

None of that means we're protected from everything.

We're definitely not.

But every additional capability we build gives us another option.

And I think options are incredibly valuable in business.

The goal isn't necessarily to predict exactly what happens next.

The goal is to build something capable of adapting when it does.

Numbers Corner

The numbers this week were interesting because they didn't necessarily match how busy the business felt.

The traditional eBay store was noticeably quieter.

But Live continued to perform.

Monday's show did around $1,270.

Wednesday did around $1,590 across 91 items.

Thursday's women's show did roughly $806 in around an hour and twenty minutes.

Friday finished at around $1,411.

By late Friday we were sitting somewhere just under $10,000 for the week, with the weekend still ahead of us.

Not an extraordinary week.

But considering how quiet the normal store felt at times, it demonstrated exactly why I've been spending so much time developing other parts of the business.

And importantly, some of the stock the new team member had helped process was already starting to sell too.

Little wins.

But they add up.

A Small Leadership Reminder

I also had an interesting reminder this week about documenting a business publicly.

People see snippets.

A weekly vlog might be an hour long.

But we're spending roughly forty hours inside the warehouse.

That means you're seeing a tiny fraction of what actually happens.

Sometimes I'll mention that someone isn't working that day.

Or somebody has had some time off.

And occasionally people form opinions about whether someone is reliable or how much work they're doing.

I understand that most comments probably aren't intended maliciously.

But when it comes to my team, there has to be a boundary.

There are things happening in people's lives that aren't anyone else's business.

If somebody needs time away from work, the reason is between them and me.

And if I ever had an issue with someone's performance, that conversation would also remain between us.

Documenting my business publicly doesn't mean the people who work with me signed up to have every part of their working life publicly analysed.

I'm incredibly grateful for my team.

I wouldn't be where I am without them.

And part of being responsible for people is protecting that boundary too.

The Bigger Picture

The most exciting thing happening right now isn't necessarily one new opportunity.

It's that the business is starting to become capable of doing more things at the same time.

A couple of years ago, almost everything flowed directly through me.

Source it.

Photograph it.

List it.

Store it.

Sell it.

Pack it.

Post it.

Repeat.

Today there are people handling photography.

People helping with postage.

People helping process inventory.

There are external partners.

Consignors.

Different sales channels.

Different categories.

Different streams of inventory.

And my role is slowly changing with it.

I'm still very hands-on.

Probably more hands-on than I eventually want to be.

But more of my time is starting to move toward:

What should we build next?

Where are the opportunities?

What systems do we need?

Who do we need?

What could become a bottleneck six months from now?

That's an entirely different challenge.

But it's a challenge I'm enjoying.

One Thing I'm Watching

Energy.

Because there's another side to all of this.

Opportunity can become addictive.

There's always another idea.

Another partnership.

Another category.

Another Live show.

Another person to hire.

Another improvement.

Another thing that could work.

And I'm excited about where things are going.

But I'm also tired.

It's been a big couple of weeks.

So I'm trying to become more aware of the difference between pushing when it's required and pushing simply because I'm capable of doing it.

The entire reason behind this journey has always been:

Building a business to suit my lifestyle.

Not building a business that eventually consumes the lifestyle.

That's something I need to keep reminding myself of as the opportunities get bigger.

Question of the Week

Something for you to think about:

Are you building something that gets stronger when things change... or something that only works when everything goes to plan?

That doesn't have to be a business.

It could be your career.

Your finances.

Your health.

Your skills.

Your relationships.

Maybe building your own moat simply means creating more options.

Learning another skill.

Building another income stream.

Developing better systems.

Strengthening relationships.

Getting some time back.

Creating a little more breathing room.

Because you probably can't control what happens next.

But you can keep improving your ability to respond to it.

That's what I'm trying to do.

One week at a time.

Building a business to suit my lifestyle.

Until next week!

Chris

Building a Business to Suit My Lifestyle