Comments for Say No! to the Office

Comment on Serial Entrepreneurialism is Not Easy by Jonathan Pincas

Jonathan Pincas — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:42:41 +0000

Thanks for stopping by Justin.

Comment on Serial Entrepreneurialism is Not Easy by Justin Mazza

Justin Mazza — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:05:28 +0000

Hi Jonathan,
This is a really sobering post for anyone who thinks that earning income online is easy. Like anything, it takes time, effort, persistence and consistency.

take care…

Comment on Ethical Customer Service Policies for Online Retailers When Trust is an Issue by Jonathan Pincas

Jonathan Pincas — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:36:44 +0000

Thanks man. That’s some seriously beautiful stuff you have on your site there.

Comment on Ethical Customer Service Policies for Online Retailers When Trust is an Issue by Andy Powell

Andy Powell — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:32:43 +0000

This is my first read of one of your articles. Already I am hooked. Jonathan Pincas “gets” it. I completely empathise with him.

Comment on Is Selling on Amazon or Ebay Worth It? by Jonathan Pincas

Jonathan Pincas — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:21:38 +0000

Yup – I remember some of the guys in the UK Business forum commenting that if Amazon decided to get its hands on whatever you were selling you could basically kiss goodbye to your business.

Comment on Are Ebay and Amazon a Waste of Time for Sellers? Sellers’ Opinions by Joe

Joe — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:59:54 +0000

Why eBay Sucks for Sellers?
I’m not the only one who hates eBay, so many other people have eBay problems.

1. Illegitimate feedback
If a buyer gives you a negtive feedback for no reason, you can’t remove it. There goes your entire reputation and sometimes your entire business.

2. Annoying rules
For example in the last 12 hours of an auction you can’t change images. A potential buyer emailed me to notify me that I had put the wrong picture on the auction page. There was no bid but because there were only 10 hours left, I couldn’t change the picture, and what do you know, no sale.

3. Bogus buyers
No more negative feedback for bogus buyers, meaning that buyers who don’t pay for their winning bids cannot be penalized by the seller. This too destroys the entire feedback system.

4. Fees
EBay’s sale commission is a good chunk plus you have to pay for every listing detail practically. Subtitle: $.50, picture: $.25, bold title: $1, etc.

5. PayPal
If you use PayPal which is very handy for eBay selling you’re going to be ripped off. They continually take more and more commissions. Plus eBay owns PayPal so you are charged 3 times, listing, commission and PayPal!

6. Refunds
Someone can buy your item using PayPal, receive the item, and then lie and say that it was not shipped. PayPal will then refund them the entire purchase amount.

8. Shipping
Everything relies on shipping. The postal service once lost a small expensive package I sold; the buyer had not pay for insurance. So I had to wait for weeks to find out what happened, and then reimburse the item from my pocket!

9. Any alternative selling elsewhere – None!!!!!!!!!!

10. Terrible customer service
If you have a problem with a sale or purchase, you have to go through bots and finally days later receive a humans actual help.

* Messy interface
Every time eBay seems to update their interface and website it gets worse. No matter how many people complain the site just becomes worse.

So even though I started a successful eBay business I have moved on. If you use eBay, let me know what you think.

Comment on Is Selling on Amazon or Ebay Worth It? by Dan

Dan — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:46:11 +0000

It’s also worth considering that in the long run you are also giving away competitive information to these platforms, Amazon is also a competitor in many cases and a good selling juicy niche might lead to Amazon developing in your neighborhood if it isn’t already. Another example of this is advertising on Google and letting them know the value of a conversion to your business.

Comment on The Polymath Entrepreneur by Jonathan Pincas

Jonathan Pincas — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:49:37 +0000

Yeah – I was a bit fast and loose with my use of the word ‘polymath’, but hey. Anyway, really good to hear from you and pleased to hear about the freelance journalist thing. I remember you commenting something about that a while back so I guess it panned out. Would love to hear more details.

Comment on The Polymath Entrepreneur by Sally W-F

Sally W-F — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:46:59 +0000

Obviously I meant Djerassi in the comment above – can’t think where ‘Djinner’ came from?!

Comment on The Polymath Entrepreneur by Sally W-F

Sally W-F — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:44:03 +0000

Hi Jon, interesting piece! This struck a chord with me as I’m a trained Electronics Engineer who now makes a living running my own business as a freelance journalist. If you had told me when I was at school that I would end up as a professional writer (I focused on maths and the sciences), I would have laughed. To top it all off my extra-curricular activities are creative in a different way – sewing and pattern making, mostly. I consider myself a multi-disciplinary person but wouldn’t go as far as to call myself a polymath. That would require me to excel at all the things I do – see Djinner’s polygamy/promiscuity metaphor in the article you linked to.
Running a business these days certainly requires a variety of knowledge and skills, but I’m of the opinion that if I can get hold of a book/website on how to do something, then I can do it! I think a positive mental attitude, along with the willingness to learn that you mention, are the real pre-requisites. A gift for selling almost certainly helps though…