A hobby that can turned in a business
By Ajay Sharma
@ajayrekha (491)
India
May 19, 2008 4:45am CST
Hi,
I would like to share with you of my hobby which turned in to a good business. I met a person on yahoo chat. I was interested in starting a home based small business. That fellow asked me to collect used empty inkjet and laser cartridges. He sent me and advance cheque of Rs. 4000/- (approx $100). I collected a few and sent to him. Them it striked to my mind, I explored it on google and found some new brokers. I found a few people who were ready to offer more money. I negotiated with them and also with the earlier guy. The earlier guy offered me more prices and I could find with my discussion that he was a genuine exporter who used to export these to USA and Europe for making remanufactured cartrides which is a genuine business. Others were duplicators. I worked for a couple of years with him and them tried to expand myself in USA on my own. I hired a virtual office and started on ebay.com. Just type "empty cartridges" on ebay search and you yourself will be able to realize the power of this business. Then I expanded futher by going into whole sale and making big deals with dealers in USA. I got 2 big setbacks when a couple of dealers did not pay me and stopped responding after receiving my material. It put me in a big loss and I was forced to stop my hobby business.
I want to restart it. What is your opinion.
3 people like this
11 responses
@freeservice (111)
• India
19 May 08
Hi Rekha... You've really learnt fast from life and seems like you are smart and observant. Good one! I like the way you mentioned your business cycle in detail. I support you and totally agree that you must re-start again. Many times people cant take losses and then give up a florishing business. This point is known as 'Soaring higher' instead of becoming dissappointed and go through a turbo down phase, you need to soar higher with you tough experiences too. Do let me know if I can help you in anyway. Go ahead in your business.. I live in India too, Bangalore and I'm Reema :-)
2 people like this
@Alfie1970 (257)
•
19 May 08
Hi ajay, way to go my friend!
I wish there was more entreprauneral people like yourself around who have foresight beyond the end of there noses.
Well done and re-establish the business, Congratulations and Good Luck 
@ajayrekha (491)
• India
22 May 08
I appreciate your comments that I have foresight beyond the end of my nose. But I feel I am over confident some time and that put me in loss and that is bad for a good entrepranerur. Thanks
@smileyDevil (271)
• India
19 May 08
Mr/Ms AjayRekha,
I suggest that you alwayz should go slow on your business. I guess you were too fast.
You have to restart your business and that too with confidence.
And when you want to restart... Dont listen to anyone, just listen to your heart.
Wishing you all the very best.
With Warm Regards
Smiley Devil
@ajayrekha (491)
• India
22 May 08
Many thanks to you and also to those all who have suggested me to restart it. You have have boosted my moral.
Thanks again!
@sergedan (767)
• Romania
19 May 08
You must restart your business, and next time ask for cash upfront.
Everything started on yahoo chat for me too. I met a gypsy, he asked me to do a website to teach people Romanian, I did, then only after 2 years I had the inspiration to try to make profits with my website. I already had a big readership and good traffic.
I put a translation section and in the first weeks I received an advance payment of 150 dollars to translate a book. There's more to come and now I wish I had started this thing much earlier.
1 person likes this
@praveensirsi (91)
•
20 May 08
congrats ajay for that..i have many ppl who have turned their hobby and habits to business...my cousins was very gud in programming is now owning a big software industry i wudn mwant to take names here...but i feel luck is very imp in such cases...everyone cant be succesfull of course hard work is also equally necessary
@mimico (3617)
• Philippines
19 May 08
How long ago was this business? I looked it up on ebay and I think the market is a bit saturated right now but it may still work since you've already had some experience before. If you have the time and cash, I advice you to go for it! This time though you must be careful to check the credentials of your buyers so that you won't incur any more losses. I'm really happy for you and I wish you nothing but luck in this business venture.
1 person likes this
@ajayrekha (491)
• India
22 May 08
Yes, I also keep an eye on the thing and I also feel it is saturated on ebay. It was some 3 years before when I closed it. I think I should workout a lot before giving it a start again.
@nilzerous1 (2434)
• India
19 May 08
This is great and once you have smelt the favor of money why not give it a start again? After all in any business there are few bad debts, and you need to handle them with care so as to reduce the percentage of losses. Otherwise, I find no problem in wishing you all the best for your enterprise.
1 person likes this
@spoiled311 (5500)
• Philippines
19 May 08
oh wow! is that right AJ? where are you from? can i also collect cartridges and send them to you? that is an easy job!!! great post. thank you for sharing.
God bless you! :-)
by the way, how were you paid? the more efficient payment service for me is paypal. thanks again! good day!
@kenniem (97)
• United States
19 May 08
Maybe if there is a way to put your business on ebay then you wouldn't have to worry about loss. Paypal covers you expenses if someone doesn't deliver the goods. You have an exellent idea. Working for yourself, opnce you get ti up and running, to me is always the best option. All the profits go to you and only you.
@dreamscape (49)
•
19 May 08
I'd say you restart it. You already know the ropes. Learn from your mistakes. Just avoid the dealers that swindled you before. Yet, try to find ways to avoid being cheated again. Furthermore, do not ever do that same thing to others--that is do not ever cheat anyone.
As I heard before: losers are not those who failed; they are those who quitted.
1 person likes this
@jenleestan (68)
• United States
20 May 08
Hi,
I think that you should restart your hobby business. You really seem to have learned from your first experience and just be sure to apply all of that knowledge that you gained from your first experience to your next. Live and learn! If that is what you want to do, then go for it. Best of luck to you and your business!
1 person likes this
