Should You Sell What You Love?

“Sell what you love and the money will follow.”

“Sell what you know and watch the profits roll in.”

“If you are passionate about it, your customers will buy it.”

Have you heard this advice before?

While these catchy phrases do make for great inspirational sound bytes, unfortunately they are not solid business advice.

In fact, all three statements leave out one important factor for success…

You can only sell what you love, sell what you know and sell what you are passionate about IF people are interested in buying those products.

If no one is buying,  it doesn’t matter how much you like a product, you won’t make money selling it online.

Here’s the Profitable Approach

Find products that sell and be open to new passions.

Let’s look at an example:

Adele has a love of decorative plates.  Her house is filled with an impressive collection.

She thought this passion might translate nicely to an eBay business.

Because she loves decorative plates so much, Adele was sure that buyers would flock to her listings and buy the plates she adores.

However, Adele ignored one of the important fundamentals product sourcing; she became attached to her product line.

Not only that, she didn’t do her research ahead of time on the market demand for the kind of decorative plates she was selling.

Her results were disappointing.  The plates didn’t sell well.

After several months, Adele started to think that maybe an eBay business wasn’t for her.

It wasn’t until she and I talked that she realized the business wasn’t the problem, her product was!

Once Adele went back and did her research on the market demand for decorative plates, she realized that the plates she loved were not desired by other collectors.

So, Adele went back to the drawing board. Several months later, Adele reported that she had found a new niche in the collectibles market and her business was moving right along.

But Can’t I Sell What I Like?

Absolutely!  You have to have an interest in what you sell or you won’t put energy into marketing it. And if you don’t have knowledge about your product line and passion for your offerings, your customers can tell a mile away.

But remember, there are millions of products in the world to sell.  So always keep an eye out, and an open mind for the next opportunity.

Your business will be much more profitable with this approach.

-Lisa Suttora