The first question most people are interested in when starting a wholesale makeup business is just how much money it is possible to make. Because why go there if it is not going to be profitable, right? That is why I would advise anyone to do some basic sums before starting out.

You really need to decide first of all what level of target profit you want to achieve, and then work backwards. Now before you even start, if you just said you want to make £1,000 profit every month from selling cosmetics, I would immediately advise you that is probably unrealistic, especially if you are starting off with a small amount of cash to invest. It is possible, but you will need to reinvest your profits and keep buying more stock in order to reach this sort of scale.

As an example, say you are aiming to sell everything at 100% mark up, i.e double your original cost price (which is difficult to do as I will explain another day). So to make £1,000 profit you would need stock costing at least £1,000 and sales of at least £2,000. Now for the catch…if you are selling on eBay there are eBay listing fees, eBay final value fees, and Paypal fees which will reduce your profit.

In a later article, I will be giving a few examples of how these fees impact on your profit levels based on the final selling price of various items on eBay. For now, suffice to say that the lower the item value, the higher a percentage of your profits will be eaten up by fees.

Remember, if you are selling privately to friends and family then usually no fees will apply (unless you also accept paypal). Also, the final value for items sold privately is likely to be higher than the price you will achieve selling on eBay. Just another reason to consider all your options folks!

Related posts:

1. Selling Cosmetics On eBay
2. Selling Cosmetics On eBay – Makeup Listing Tips
3. Selling Makeup on eBay How To Start