My buddy Jay from New Jersey (who happens to own the 2nd best wholesale company in the USA, of course BigBrandWholesale.com is better... or perhaps I'm bias) and I were venting the other day about how gosh darn aggravating it is when family, relatives and even strangers you meet in passing simply cannot understand what an online seller ACTUALLY IS. Combine that with the gross misconceptions about what an online seller DOES and it’s enough to make any seller Google search, “How to politely tell an in-law they are an idiot”

So if you are feeling like you want to scream into a pillow or go buck wild on a punching bag because you are sick and tired of trying to explain your job position; you are not alone. So here’s our list of TOP ANNOYANCES that online sellers deal with simply due to people not understanding WTF we do for a living:

ANNOYANCE #1: “So, you’re an eBayer?”

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: If someone told you “I work in the medical industry”, would you say “So you’re a doctor?”. No, not everyone in the medical industry is a doctor and no, not every online seller sells on eBay!  Now if you are an eBayer this probably doesn't annoy you, but it drives the rest of us utterly insane!

ANNOYANCE #2: “Since you don’t really *have to work* can you watch my kids this summer? I got into a financial jam and can’t pay my usual sitter”

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: I literally had a neighbor ask me this.  Jay had someone ask him to take them to the airport.  People do not realize that we DO have to work! In fact, any small business owner works double the hours of a traditional job!  Most of us work 365 days per year! 

ANNOYANCE #3: So you get to sleep in then relax on the couch in your PJ’s all day?

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: FACT: No SUCCESSFUL online seller gets to do this. Well, maybe some days you do get to wear your pajamas but there is no “relaxing” and if you are sitting on a couch I can almost guarantee you are typing on a laptop while doing it; since most online sellers do not have coworkers, 100% of the duties rest on their shoulders.  Trust me, our job isn't as glamorous as you think!

ANNOYANCE #4: So people just give you things to sell for them?

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: It’s rude to auto-assume that people who sell online are “gifted” their inventory! All of us bust our a** to afford the inventory we have to sell, so it is very condescending to suggest that we have no expenses!

ANNOYANCE #5: “Here’s some advice for you”…. Or “You really should”

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: This really gets under online sellers skin because the person giving the unwanted advice knows absolutely nothing about selling online or owning a small business. It’s so incredibly frustrating that we even wrote a post all about it called 10 Ways to Respond to Unsolicited Business Advice

ANNOYANCE #6: “Get me a pair of Levis size 32x32! Do you have Oakley sunglasses; the black aviator type?”

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: We are NOT personal shoppers and we are not a charity!  If you want to see what we have look at our listings. 

ANNOYANCE #7: If they ask “How’s business” and you say “Great”, they suddenly expect you to be financial support for something they want to buy.

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: Once I FINALLY reached the point of my business being truly profitable and employees could be hired (it took over 10 YEARS of working 7 days a week with 0 days off!) I was FINALLY able to begin enjoying “the fruits of my labor”.

• I FINALLY took a vacation
• I FINALLY got a Mercedes
• I FINALLY began doing much-needed remodeling in my home
• And so on.

And it was almost the exact moment that this happened, people began wanting me to gift them money. Additionally, it seemed as if several people expected it! But those same people did not help me when I struggled to start a business. In fact, those same people were the ones who told me that online selling is “not a real job”. And this is exactly why we wrote the blog post “Dealing with Negativity from Friends and Family about Online Selling”.

Anyways, telling us not only how to run our business but also what we should do with any profit is beyond aggravating!

ANNOYANCE #8: “You should hire my niece! She is really good at all that internet stuff and she really needs a job!”

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: We will hire whom we feel is the best fit for us. (Personally, I have learned the hard way to never hire friends or family. It never works out good in the end even though it starts off amazing).  I'm sure your 12 year old niece is the sweetest pre-teen in the world but telling us to hire her puts us in a really awkward position. 

ANNOYANCE #9:“That’s not a *REAL JOB*!”

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: Real data proves that, not only is it a real job, but 2-4% of Amazon and eBay sellers have become millionaires! On top of that, the average online seller SAVES $20,000 or more simply by working from home!  A successful online seller makes more than you at your 9-5!

ANNOYANCE #10: “Oh that's so fun!”

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: Work is not necessarily “fun”. HOWEVER, there are jobs that are indeed more enjoyable than others, but work is work. Personally, I would rather be laying on a beach, drinking a Pina Colada than spending 14 hours sitting at a desktop PC, but that’s just my personal opinion.

As mentioned previously, when you work from home, 100% of the job duties rest on your shoulders. It is a much more difficult, challenging job to be a 1-person-small-business than working for a company that employs hundreds.

Is online selling “FUN”? Not necessarily, unless your idea of a great time is photographing, typing, shipping and responding to (mostly stupid) questions all day long; not necessarily my idea of having a blast on a Saturday night. 

ANNOYANCE #11: “Wow. You got lucky!”

WHY THIS IS ANNOYING: This is probably one of the most annoying of them all because it’s basically like saying you do not DESERVE what you have labored like crazy to achieve. It’s no different than getting a college scholarship because you stayed in and studied all throughout high school while your fellow students were partying. Come graduation time, did you “get lucky” to get that scholarship? NO, you EARNED it.            

Love this article?  Next read 10 Ways to Respond to Unsolicited Business Advice