Exponent Trading - Viable Home Business?
Exponent Trading is a Network Marketing Company centered around selling on eBay and CraigsList. It integrates the online selling model with the MLM model. Basically you sign on to Exponent Trading and become a representative. You can then make money by selling other people's goods on consignment or selling your own stuff and you also can make money by recruiting and training new representatives (classic MLM).
In this post, I wrote about some of the issues relating to consignment eBay selling under a franchise model. Exponent Trading has the distinct advantage of not being a franchise model and therefore not subject to some of the disadvantages Sydney and I discussed in that thread (such as high entrance costs and territory restrictions).
In a standard eBay consignment business, you will generally be dealing with people's used goods. There will always be a bit of this and a bit of that and you'll almost never sell the exact same thing twice. What this means is that for every item you acquire through consignment, you must catalog it, photograph it (at least once), write up a title / description, decide on a selling price, and build an eBay listing. One garage full of 'stuff' could easily takes days to go through and complete these processes. You must address this in your business plan and have a vision for how you will make this work within a 16 hour day (assuming you allow 8 hours for sleep).
While Exponent Trading encompasses eBay consignment, it's not just about consignment. You can really sell anything you want via the Exponent system which makes for an interesting twist. They also use CraigsList along with eBay which is an interesting twist as well.
There are some lively discussions about Exponent Trading going on at What Really Sells, Auction Bytes and The Auction Rebel. Be sure to read the comments as well as the posts - a lot of great points are made both pro and con! Exponent Trading is fairly new so it will be interesting and fun to watch.
Exponent Trading Main Page
Tags: Exponent Trading, eBay Home Business, eBay Consignment Business, eBay Consignment Selling
