Many eBay sellers have the belief that trade shows are only for buyers from retail giants purchasing the next Gucci handbag. This is not true. In fact, there are an enormous variety of trade shows around. Some are purely for gifts, some are for toys, and some are for homewares. And you won’t just find the big name brands – there will also be interesting and creative offerings from up-and-coming artists and boutiques; cheap and cheerful unbranded merchandise from China and Asia, plus locally made goods and home-grown offerings. In essence: everything.

Trade shows are particularly good for finding niche items that aren’t available from the likes of WalMart. If you haven’t heard that money is in niche markets, then take note. You’ll be hearing a lot more about the long tail and the potential it holds on this site! Niche markets are simply the best way to make money on eBay – or anywhere else for that matter.

How Do You Register for Canadian Trade shows?

There are many trade shows held in Canada each year. For most you will need to be able to prove that you are a member of the industry. However, the rules are somewhat laxer for very new businesses and often all you’ll need is a registered business name.

For subsequent visits though, you may be asked for industry credentials such as a business card, invoices of relevant merchandise purchased and your tax ID. Some trade shows will take this all very seriously, while for others it will merely be a way of scaring off time-wasters and if you enter a legitimate business name and details you’ll have no trouble at all.

Please don’t be put off by what is required to register. A little bit of effort here will reap big rewards, simply because the majority of sellers aren’t going to bother.

A tip for newbies: don’t treat the trade show registration forms like you might other online forms. Enter your genuine information. Your inbox won’t be blasted with useless fluff – in fact, you’ll be lucky to get much at all. And when any information does come your way you will want to get it!

Before You Arrive…

Make sure you have a clear sense of purpose before you visit. Are you simply looking for ideas or are you going to place an order? You may wish to prepare some questions to ask exhibitors before you go. And don’t forget to take a good stock of your own business cards – while also making sure you nab as many from stall-holders as you can! You don’t have to go with the purpose of purchasing, but you do need to go with the purpose of creating relationships and building up a repertoire of potential contacts.

Where to Find Upcoming Trade Shows

Canada Biz Tradeshows

Trade shows for importers of China and Asia-made products

Ultimate Trade Show Directory

Expo Central Canada

There are two important things to know about liquidation:

1. Quality of stock is variable

   Not all liquidation is equal! Some liquidation pallets are overstock, others are shelf pulls, broken or returned items, shop-soiled or damaged. Although pallets may be given a status, such as ‘returns’ or ‘new’, you can’t be sure that this is really the case unless you inspect. For instance, while a product may be ‘new’ in the sense it has never been used, it may also have been sitting in a warehouse for 5 years and be far too dated to be saleable. You really can’t tell what you are going to get unless you inspect first.

2. You usually have to buy by the pallet load – that means a typical spend of $500+, so this method is not ideal for people on a budget (and don’t forget you also have to add transportation, storage and Customs costs on top of the purchase price).

Buying liquidation over the internet can be risky. We’ve heard stories of people getting pallets full of broken merchandise with only a couple of sale-worthy items. We’ve also heard of one sly liquidator who shall not be named placing a top layer of designer products over a pallet full of chain store clothing. Remember that liquidation sales are final. Once you win the auction, the goods are yours no matter what!

Limit Your Risk

Before bidding, get a full inventory of every item in the pallet and its condition; You should also make an appointment to inspect the pallet if possible.

Competition

Given the marvelous bargains available, liquidation sites are understandably very popular so be aware that you will have a lot of competition, particular for popular items such as consumer electronics and brand name goods. Basically, the more money you have, the more power you have on liquidation sites!

Find Your Own Liquidation Deals

There are plenty of great liquidation deals you can find yourself! Most liquidation sites are based in the US which means potentially hefty transportation charges. Save yourself the bother and expense by doing some deals locally. Look for stores closing down and offer to buy up all left over plant and stock. Visit stores at the end of sale season and ask to purchase remaining stock in bulk. They’ll be pleased to get rid of it and you can cut yourself a good deal. This is a particularly good idea for clothing, which you can store over the out of season period and resell at the beginning of the season next year.

A final tip: Don’t get carried away! Do your market research before you buy and always set yourself a budget limit. If the auction goes over that, too bad.

See Statement of Business Activities

The Basics

To make sure you meet all your legal and tax requirements it is a very wise idea to:

• Keep your business transactions separate from your personal by opening a business bank account.
• Use Excel or Quicken to keep records of your sales transactions. Both are easy to merge with eBay.

Paying Tax

Sole proprietors pay tax simply by filling in a personal income tax form at the end of the year.

GST

You need to register for GST (goods and services tax) if your worldwide taxable revenues are more than $30,000.

Tax Deductions

Tax deductions are one of the big bonuses of working from home. You can deduct any reasonable business expense from your income, reducing the amount of tax you have to pay right down.

Important: You must have receipts or other vouchers to support your expenses or claims. If there is no evidence available, the tax department may reduce the expenses of claims you have made.

What You Can Claim:

• Rent/mortgage payments
• Start up costs
• Advertising
• Computer leasing
• Delivery & freight
• Insurance
• Legal & accounting costs
• Telephone & utilities
• Fuel costs and travel expenses

Business Use of Home (Rent, utility bills etc)

You can deduct a proportion of your rent/mortgage repayments, utility bills and so on as long as you can prove your home is your principal place of business or you use the space only to earn your business income and you use it on a regular and ongoing basis.

To decide how much rent/mortgage you can deduct, you need to measure the number of square feet you use for business and divide that by the overall square feet or your home. This area needs to be dedicated solely to business use, so if possible, a spare bedroom or office is ideal but a portion of another room is still acceptable. This will give you a percentage of your home that you use for business and the percentage of rent/mortgage you can deduct as a business expense.

Other expenses you may deduct include part of your maintenance costs such as heating, home insurance, electricity, and cleaning materials. You can also deduct a part of your property taxes, mortgage interest, and capital cost allowance. It’s a good idea to consider getting a second phone line to make it easier to claim phone and internet bills for your business.

Business Start up Costs Deductions

Make sure you have the start date of your business recorded as you can only deduct business expenses incurred after the start-up date.

You can also deduct the lease you pay for computers, cell phones, fax machines and other equipment. But note that if you buy this equipment it is not a deductable expense.

More information on Business expenses.

Record Keeping

Your business success is dependant on your records. You also have a legal obligation to keep records for a minimum of 6 years from the date of filing your return.

Many new businesses make the mistake of not bothering to keep accurate records and end up not knowing where they stand. They don’t know where money is being wasted, when their profits are higher, and when they are lower. This is a big mistake. You can’t hope to improve your business, to truly make it profitable if you don’t know what’s actually happening. And don’t forget that good records are also absolutely essential in case of an audit and will protect you from penalties and potential problems.

You must record:

• Salaries and wages
• Operating expenses such as rent and advertising, and capital expenditures
• Miscellaneous items, such as charitable donations
• Your records must allow you to determine how much tax you owe, or the tax, duties, or other amounts to be collected, withheld, deducted, or any refund or rebate you may claim.
• You must have receipts or other vouchers to support your expenses or claims. If there is no evidence available, the tax department may reduce the expenses of claims you have made.

Accounting Software

Some people still prefer the traditional system of a ledger book to keep their records. However, these days accounting software is easy to use and saves you a lot of time by duplicating records across spreadsheets. The two most popular software applications for small business accounting are Intuit’s QuickBooks/Quicken and Microsoft Excel. Both of these applications can be integrated with eBay, making it super easy to transfer your sales data from My eBay, Selling Assistant or Selling Manager.

eBay Accounting Assistant is free to download and helps you import your eBay and PayPal data from eBay, and export it directly into your QuickBooks company file. It’s free, but you need to be subscribed to Selling Assistant or Selling Manager to use it. It’s a great way of reducing data-entry time and minimizes transcription errors.

For help on using Quicken or Excel, visitAll Business for free resources and tutorials.

Importing Records

If you import goods into Canada, your records must indicate the price you paid for imported goods, and list their origin and description. They must also include any documentation about the reporting, release, and accounting of the goods, as well as the payment of duties and taxes.

Find more information in the Canada Importing Guide.

Business Number (BN)

You may need a Business Number to file your tax returns if your business meets one or more of the following criteria. The BN is a numbering system that simplifies and streamlines the way businesses deal with Canada’s Revenue Agency.

• You are a corporation
• You have imported or exported goods
• You have staff
• You are GST registered

Apply for a Business Number here: Request a Business Number Form

See Canada Revenue Agency for more information.

There are a lot of good drop shippers located in the US, but sadly, many will not ship to Canada. All is not lost however, because there are some excellent drop shippers in Canada! Scroll down to the end of this article to get some recommendations of drop shippers who will ship to Canada and drop shippers based in Canada. And I should add that we always recommend emailing the drop shipper personally about shipping to Canada rather than just going off what their website states. What many sellers don’t realize is that everything is open to negotiation!

Before you start working with drop shippers you need to be aware of some important aspects of this supply method:

• There is usually a delay of 3-7 days before the drop shipper ships an order
• Drop shippers can, and often do, run out of stock without notice
• Packaging and shipping services may not be consistent in quality
• Profits can end up being very small by the time the drop shipper’s fees are taken into account plus listing fees and success fees on eBay.

There – we’ve told you the worst now! But on the plus side, using a drop shipper means:

• You only have to pay for what you sell: fantastic if you are on a limited budget
• You don’t have to store anything
• You don’t have to take photos or even write the product description – these are usually all available to download from the drop shipper’s website.
• You don’t have to spend time packaging and posting orders – a task that can be very time- consuming.

One thing to remember: If a particular drop shipper or product isn’t working out for you, then don’t feel obligated to keep selling it. Find an alternative that gives you better margins.

The Secret to Drop shipping Successfully

Communication is everything if you want drop shipping to work well: that is, communication with both the drop shipper and your customers. This is what you should focus your attentions on as it is the biggest weakness with this supply method.

Make sure you email or phone the drop shipper weekly, or even more frequently if you have a large turnover, to check up on supply levels. It’s a good idea to keep a couple of the items on hand yourself, just in case you have an urgent order and the drop shipper runs out of stock.

Make sure that your customer is fully aware of the time delay before shipping. State this on your auction and in the email the buyer receives notifying them that they are the successful winner of the auction. If the delay ends up being even longer than estimated, email them to keep them updated at the first opportunity and consider posting them a discount voucher to thank them for their patience.

Email them again when the item is posted and consider sending a feedback form to all of your customers a day or two after the item has been delivered. It’s important that you find out from customer how well the drop shipper’s service and presentation stands up. You might not necessarily hear about it if the service is just average rather than bad.

All of these things can be almost fully automated so it isn’t as time consuming as you might think. The important thing is to make sure the customer is never left guessing. And because eBay is getting tougher on bad sellers, you should also put your contact phone number in a card with the item (the drop shipper can do this for you), asking them to contact you in person if they have any issues or concerns. The phone is the best way to solve problems and avoid unhappy customers.

Canadian Drop shippers Pacificrimwholesale.com Supercom.ca Dynamicdigital.ca

Drop shippers Who Will Ship to Canada Ezdropship.com Simplx.com