1. Start reading Sell Their Stuff by Hillary DePiano for free right now
  2. What is a Selling Or Trading Assistant? The Ultimate Overview of Consignment Selling
  3. What does consignment mean? What is consignment selling?
  4. What exactly does a Selling Assistant do? What’s a typical day like?
  5. How does a Selling Assistant make money? Who can become one?
  6. Can eBay Trading Assistants still sell on consignment for others now that the program is gone?
  7. Where can a Selling Assistant sell their client’s consignment items?
  8. What kind of items can a Selling Assistant sell on consignment for their clients?
  9. Sellers, here’s why you should add Selling Assistant services to your existing e-commerce business
  10. From SAHMs to retirees, students to teachers: here’s who should start a Selling Assistance service
  11. Designing your Selling Assistance service from terms and conditions to services and features
  12. Money Matters: How does a Selling Assistant profit from selling items for others?
  13. Resale and the Selling Assistant: Sometimes it’s simpler to just buy the items outright
  14. Selling Assistant fees: What are they and how do they work?
  15. The Pros and Cons of charging a fee for your Selling Assistant services
  16. Does charging a commission on your Selling Assistant services maximize your profits?
  17. Charge a combination of fees and commission to maximize your Selling Assistant profits
  18. Here’s how I profit from my Selling Assistant business
  19. Should a Selling Assistant give their client a deposit or advance on future earnings?
  20. Should the Selling Assistant require a deposit of new clients?
  21. Who pays for what when selling for others on consignment?
  22. Should the consignment seller cover all selling fees or pass them onto the client?
  23. How discounted & free shipping offers affect consignment selling
  24. Shipping costs & selling fees are the least of your worries…
  25. Paying your clients their share of your Selling Assistant sales
  26. Calculating client payments on a Selling Assistant contract
  27. Method of Payment: How should I pay my Selling Assistant client?
  28. Reporting and reconciliation of a Selling Assistant client contract
  29. Build yourself a timeline for paying Selling Assistant clients without getting burned
  30. Money Matters Managed
  31. Your Selling Situation: Where and how should I sell my Selling Assistant items?
  32. Multi-Channel Consignment Selling: List your items on multiple marketplaces for greater exposure
  33. Practice your Selling Assistance service before you start taking on clients
  34. Do you need a storefront or standalone webstore to be a Selling Assistant?
  35. Is eBay still the best place for a Trading Assistant turned consignment seller?
  36. Does the Selling Assistant consignment sell from their own account or the clients?
  37. Should I have a designated selling account for my Selling Assistance consignment service?
  38. The 8 questions you must ask yourself before you start selling on consignment
  39. Good customer service is a selling point that can distinguish your services
  40. The benefits of having a PO Box or other Locked Mailbox for your business
  41. Designate a business phone line for more professional client contact
  42. Consider VOIP & internet-based phones like Google Voice or Skype over traditional options
  43. Offering pick-up services is an easy way to attract local Selling Assistant clients
  44. Should you allow Selling Assistant clients to drop their items off?
  45. Expand the reach of your Selling Assistant service by letting clients ship their items to you

How do I know how much to pay my Selling Assistant client?

calculator photoSaying that you’ll pay your client the actual value their items sold for is really an oversimplification because, depending on how you decided to handle your SA fees and/or commission, shipping and selling fees or other expenses, there are several deductions you’ll need to make from that number before you actually send a payment. Of all the elements of your business, this is the one you want to be the most careful with. Mistakes can lead anywhere from a lawsuit from a client you shortchanged to you overpaying, and those extra dollars will not be easy to get back, if ever.

While your equation will vary slightly depending on how you’re allocating everything, here’s the basic breakdown:

[AMOUNT ITEM SOLD FOR] – [SELLING & PAYMENT PROCESSING FEES] – [SA FEE OR COMMISSION] – [ANY ADDITIONAL CHARGES]
= [AMOUNT DUE CLIENT]

Let’s do a quick example. Let’s say I’m your SA and your item sold on eBay for $1,000. The eBay and PayPal fees I’m holding you responsible for total $130.59, and I charge a 35% commission on the final sale price, which comes to $350. I didn’t bill you for anything else, so it’s a simple matter of punching our values into the equation above.

$1000 – $130.59 – $350 = $519.41

I owe you $519.41.

Did you look at that number and think, dang, I didn’t get much of that fictional $1,000? Now you’ve got a sense of what it’s like to be a Selling Assistance client and why it’s important to make sure your client is informed ahead of time about the various costs and deductions. But remember, presentation is everything. How you present the payment to your client and report all the expenses will be a big factor in how they react to the bottom line. Deductions look much more drastic when looking at an individual transaction than when applied to the total of the whole contract.