What skills do I need to trade?
To become a successful local trader, you need to have an enquiring and creative mind, energy, a pleasant personality and a determined attitude. You need to have an enquiring mind to come up ideas of where to find new products. As you travel around your suburb, you should be looking around, thinking and asking yourself as to whether someone or some firm has something they want to get rid of. Sometimes you may have to walk around an industrial area and actually have a look at the ‘rubbish’ they are throwing away, maybe take photos with your cell phone. Is this ‘rubbish’ something that can be used by someone else? Does it have some value – can it be recycled. Similarly in a local suburb, you could walk from house to house and enquire whether they have anything they would like to get rid of, such as books, old furniture, ornaments, TVs, old appliances, etc.
You need to have a pleasant personality and a nice smile, in order to put people at their ease. People are uncomfortable having to deal with outsiders and you need to get them to feel happy to talk to you and to work with you. You need to be determined without being rude or aggressive. You need to convince people that you can solve their problem by taking something off their hands. That’s why a nice personality and big smile will help you. You also need energy, because traveling around, often walking around, and trying to convince people and often getting negative comments and outright refusals can be very draining. This will require a lot of energy on your part. Determination is another asset you will need, as you will almost certainly receive many, many ‘no thank-you’ comments, as well as some negative and nasty comments as well – some people will chase you away. You will need a strong sense of determination to succeed. No success is ever achieved without some hard work.