Managing Yourself in the Liquidation Industry

Getting started in the liquidation industry can be a rush of excitement! Buying items for pennies on the dollar when all your friends are paying full retail is an awesome feeling. You are also, generally, working with higher volume and bigger numbers. Many people allow themselves to get caught up in the excitement. I certainly did when I was getting started! This can cause newbies to operate while in a sense of euphoria and to forget that they are running a business. A business in a cut-throat industry that is infested with plenty of sharks!

Whether you are brand new to selling, or you have been selling for a couple years, the seven techniques below were written in an attempt to cause a moment of reflection--to create a time that brings you back to being grounded in reality and to put processes in place to ensure that you are operating your venture as a business and not just a hobby. Enjoy!

Manage Yourself.

The hardest person to manage is yourself. That is because all of the excuses as to why you are doing what you are doing are not being challenged by anyone or anything. Below are just a few ways to force yourself to be more accountable.

Plan your week prior to it starting.

At BuyLow Warehouse, we have made it a habit to plan our week before it starts. We encourage everyone on the team to do this. Often, we review each other’s plans to have additional clarity and accountability on what will be accomplished. We also review and keep track of our completion percentages with each other at the end of the week. If it is just yourself, no problem! Identify the top five items that must be accomplished during the week. Hold yourself accountable at the end of the week by tracking your completion percentage. If you struggle getting the important tasks done, adjust your schedule to create time to achieve them. If you hit your completion goal for the month, give yourself a reward! For additional ideas on holding yourself accountable, see THIS ARTICLE.

Work on the most important tasks first.

As Mark Twain said, “If you eat a frog first thing in the morning, that will probably be the worst thing you do all day.” Research has confirmed that you should tackle your most difficult tasks first if you actually want to be most productive. Avoid self-imposed procrastination by doing the hardest things on your list first. More on this can be found at THIS ARTICLE on Business Insider.

Solve small problems before they turn into big problems.

Most big problems start out small with an opportunity to solve them before they become too big of an issue. Most people overlook them when they are at this stage because they fail to recognize the growth of the problem in the future. Squelch the problems before they turn into a major issue.

Keep Learning.

It is very important to continue to focus yourself to stay up to date and to continue learning. By infusing your brain with new ideas, you are able to remain creative and continue growing your business. I personally love to use podcasts for this, although books, magazines, blogs or other educational means can work as well.

In summary, it is very important to grow your business with a defined purpose and direction. The habits above have aided BuyLow Warehouse to grow our business and to survive significant challenges. Some of these lessons were learned because we did them and in hindsight, we are very happy that we did. We learned other habits because we did not do them and suffered the consequences. It is our hope that we can help you avoid some of the same mistakes that we made by not adopting these habits. Ultimately, there is no silver bullet to growing a business in the liquidation industry. You must remain fluid, humble and adaptable. Things change constantly and you must be willing to change with them or risk becoming obsolete.