For Atlanta eBay sellers, entrepreneurship starts at home

Trew had to retire from her job as a firefighter for medical reasons and needed income but not the physical strain of a 9 to 5 career.

All found their way into the world of ecommerce as full-time sellers on eBay, where they operate online stores. Saturday, they and 500 other sellers will share their stories at eBay: On Location, what amounts to a regional convention held by the company in downtown Atlanta.

With $8.7 billion in revenue in 2009, eBay bills itself as the largest online marketplace. It has 1 million sellers in the Southeast, of which more than 10 percent are in Georgia, the company said, most in metro Atlanta.

On Location offers training sessions on subjects such as how to best use social media and  how to boost productivity. It's also intended to foster networking and tip-sharing among entrepreneurs who can feel isolated.

That appeals to Thomas, Alt and Trew, who are looking to further grow their businesses.

Thomas, 47, of Cumming, sells Jibbitz brand charms for Crocs shoes on eBay as well as gifts and accessories through her online store, Smudgy Monkey. Sales, she said, have doubled each year since she started selling in December 2005. She said she's hoping to hit $100,000 in sales this year.

Thomas' husband, Jim, initially encouraged her to consider eBay, prompting her to "raid the closet" for clothes and to clean out excess computer equipment to sell.

"I had a vision of having a good business that would allow me to be at home and maybe make it into a family thing one day," Thomas said.

When Jim was laid off from his IT job, they continued to build the business together.

Because the business isn't big enough yet to fully support their family, he's again seeking work outside the home.  But their company is not just a hobby, and Thomas said it could still develop into a family business in time.

Trew, 47, of Acworth, broke into eBay by helping sell unwanted clothing for elderly people she cared for -- a side business to her full-time job as a firefighter. A series of back injuries at work forced her to leave firefighting and to start selling designer clothing, sports equipment and men's and women's accessories full-time through her eBay store, Bella and Jag's Fashionable Rags.

For now, "It's supplementing my disability pay," Trew,  said, but someday, "this hopefully will be the meat and potatoes of my income."

Trew hopes that at On Location she can "get an idea how to streamline my business. And I want to network and meet and swap ideas."

Alt, 32, said she sells up to $20,000 a month worth of pre-owned luxury accessories including Louis Vuitton handbags and luggage through her eBbay store Altradio1, although that wasn't her original plan. After graduation from the University of Georgia, she suffered a debilitating injury in an accident and still "wanted to do something with my life."

She had sold odds and ends on eBay previously, but pursued it in earnest in 2003.

She said online selling isn't as simple as it may seem.

"There's not easy money to be made, or we all would have gotten rich," she said.

Sellers said eBay offered them a quick path into entrepreneurship, providing them a built-in marketplace. Still, they said, their enterprises present many of the same challenges as other businesses. They acquire products from many sources, from retail liquidations to garage sales, then try to resell them at a profit.

At On Location, Alt looks forward to meeting other sellers.

"It will be nice to speak with people in the same industry," she said. "We can come together and share selling strategies. If someone's been successful, I want to know how they did it. I might be able to do it, too."