MANY of us dream of starting our own business – but one inspirational couple reveal how they set up an online selling empire with just a £20 supermarket voucher.
Barry and Kate Tong, who live in Northamptonshire, had never considered selling on ebay. Both worked full-time, Barry, 46, as a national sales manager and Kate, 45, as an admin team leader.
When Barry’s grandmother passed away in 2010, and her bungalow needed to be emptied, the couple decided to help by trying to shift her possessions on ebay.
The items were not particularly valuable, but knick knacks like ornaments, biscuit tins and even some sand from the Isle of Wight.
The couple spent two weeks photographing and writing descriptions of the items before listing them on ebay.
To their shock, they made over £1,000, even sending some of the items abroad, as far as Brazil.
“I couldn’t believe this stuff was selling – I thought it should be in the skip,” Barry said.
They decided to learn a bit more about ebay, reading books and researching how to put together the best possible listings.
The couple continued to sell, first auctioning off their own possessions, and then going to car boot sales, picking up DVDs to flog on the platform.
One day, the couple got chatting with their local delivery driver, explaining they were selling old things on ebay.
She asked them to have a look at her loft, which was filled with golf equipment, and the couple duly sold everything on ebay, further proving their knack for online sales.
Then the bit of luck that changed everything – a multipack of crisps stuffed with the wrong flavour.
“A supermarket had put in the wrong crisps in a multipack,” Barry said.
“Kate went to the supermarket, complained and got a £20 voucher.
“From that £20 voucher, we bought three hair lightening sprays that were brand new on offer in the health and beauty section of the supermarket, costing three for £12.
“We came home, Kate got in the shower to use her products and I jokingly listed them on ebay.
“By the time she’d got out of the shower, we’d sold all three of them for £6.99 each plus postage.”
Thus started the couple’s healthy and beauty online selling empire, Sol Retail.
The speed of the sales prompted the couple to investigate the health and beauty niche further.
They spent all their earnings on more products, developed relationships with wholesalers, started visiting trade shows and brought brands on board.
Then they got a call from Amazon, who were keen for the couple to sell on its own platform.
After many discussions, they decided to take the plunge, quit their day jobs and focus on selling on ebay and Amazon full time.
Initially, the dream wasn’t to become a multi-million-pound company, with 40 employees, as it is now.
I want to show people that you don’t need millions to start a company, you can do it with next to nothing
Barry Tong
“Looking back now, that was the biggest decision we had to make,” Barry said. “I was on good money, we’d worked hard to get to that level.
“I’d worked for 20-odd years and we were about to throw it all away for a risk.
“Our only target was to make sure that we could stay above the parapet.
“I went from having a nice company car to driving around in a Postman Pat van!
“Leaving our jobs was a huge move for us and the aim was to just stay afloat.
“We wanted to have children, and we were looking at putting ourselves in a position where we were lucky enough to not have to worry about missing our children’s plays or Christmas shows.”
The business grew beyond their expectations: they soon began selling internationally on Amazon, first in the US and then in France, Germany, Spain, and Italy.
Every pound they made was reinvested into the business, without any loans or external investments. Without any support, they learnt how to run a business as they went along.
“We’ve never borrowed a single penny,” Barry said. “We’ve used the money to put back in and put back in.
“We got a lot wrong as we went through it, but we did get an awful lot right as well.
“That was our strategy to start with: we get things wrong, we learn from that, we understand what went wrong, we move forward and we make sure we never make those mistakes again.”
From packaging up products in their bedroom and spending hours a day in the post office to the chagrin of all the other customers, the couple were now using Amazon’s warehouses and fulfilment centres to send goods around the world.
Barry and Kate also started working with the Department of Business and Trade (DBT), which was a huge support in helping them understand the intricacies of running their business internationally, such as tax liabilities.
“We started working directly with brands,” Barry said. “We stopped doing wholesalers, we stopped doing distributors, and we started to build our story and our brand.
“In 2017, we then started becoming exclusive with the brands and looking at their global strategy for online platforms around the world.
“Now we’re representing the brands, buying their products and selling them on a global stage. In our tenth year, we did £10 million.
“Our growth is astronomical: this fiscal year, we’re predicted to turn over £20 million, and we’re on a path to turn £50 million in the next three years.”
Sol Retail is now one of the biggest health and beauty sellers on Amazon and ebay, and has teamed up with Tesco, TikTok and Walmart to keep reaching new buyers and demographics.
They now own their own brands too, The Blue Beards Revenge and Below the Belt.
The couple, who have two young children, are passionate about giving back, donating over £250,000 of stock to Northampton cancer charity the Lewis Foundation and local food banks. Barry also gives his time free of charge to the DBT, offering his time and advice to aspiring business owners.
“I want to show people that you don’t need millions to start a company,” Barry said.
“You can do it from next to nothing; you just have to be careful and concise in what you do.
“Never question whether you have the ability to do it: you can drive a business and you can make it work, but you’re going to have to work hard.
“There is no business that I know of where a business owner has had it easy: you’ve got to graft and then you get the rewards.”
Kate said: “Neither of us went to university, and schools put so much emphasis on getting your grades, but there are other options if you work hard enough to achieve something.”
Here are Barry and Kate's top tips for selling on eBay:
1. Use your own photos. You might think that using brand photos makes your listing better but, if you don’t have permission from the image owner, you leave yourself wide open for an ebay violation and potentially a bill for unauthorised image use.
2. Offer free postage. This is a must when selling in the UK. Offering free postage helps improve listing rankings and you can benefit from discounted selling fees.
3. Provide faster service options. Ebay rankings and customers like it when there are options for a free-but-slower service or a paid-for fast service.
4. Deliver on time. The worst thing you can do is be late on delivery. Underpromise and over-deliver to ensure great buyer feedback.
5. Use tracked delivery. You are protected on ebay if you can prove delivery. Protect yourself and always send tracked.
6. Think from the customer’s point of view. When creating your listing, use words that your customer would search for. You do want to be found, after all.
7. Fill out ALL the details. Ebay provides optional information boxes on each listing. Fill out everything relevant to help get your listing in front of the right people.
8. Write a full product description. Whether it’s a new or used product, make sure you write a full product description to help your listing get found.
9. Be honest. If it’s a used item, make sure you give full details of any damage, including images. Dishonesty can mean returns or negative feedback, which can damage your sales.
10. Don’t be afraid to go global. As long as you have the option to get your parcel there safely and profitably, then the world’s your oyster!
