Having looked for somewhere suitable to post this opinion I have decided that this one is as good as any - after all I am my own sales manager. I grant you I am also office junior and general dogsbody but that's where working for yourself gets you!

As a lot of you will already know I worked for Walsall MBC for almost 30 years and had to leave three years ago due to ill health. I now live in Llandudno with my partner, Dave, and my parents, and I am full time carer to my dad who suffers from Alzheimer's disease.

I needed a way to earn some income and contribute to the family budget, partly because we could always do with extra cash (who couldn't) and partly to retain some independence.

I can't go out to work because of my caring duties so I had to look elsewhere for an opportunity to earn.

I have been dabbling in various things on the Internet for some years now and earning a few pounds here and there and I had also been using Ebay, particularly when we moved house, to clear some clutter and make some cash before we moved.

After much thought and discussion with my sister, who had worked in the retail trade, I decided to open an Ebay shop. My sister had been running an Ebay shop (Pagans Cave) for some time by then, selling all sorts of gothic items such as dragons, skulls, grimoires, crystals and lots more, so we knew that it was a way to earn a living.

I have done a full opinion about Ebay itself so I won't go down that route with this opinion, but you must all know by now that Ebay is the biggest auction site on which to buy and sell almost anything!

Once I had decided to open my shop, next I had to decide what to sell. I had some information about various wholesalers and my first step was to do some research on Ebay to see what sort of things sold well.

I chose to sell clocks and watches for two main reasons. The first reason is that it is something I know a little about and
am interested in and the second is that the items themselves are relatively small and so can be stored and transported easily.

I buy in bulk from my wholesaler who incidentally will also exchange any items that won't sell - what a love!

Initially I bought a selection of wristwatches for all age groups, but found these to be a non-starter as regards sales. There are so many people selling 'designer' watches on Ebay for good prices I didn't stand a chance!

My next selection contained pocket watches, clocks and keyrings and this is where the selling really began.

The pocket watches are either plain or have a design such as a car, train, angler, or golfer etc. on the front. The clocks are in the shape of cars, musical instruments, animals, sporting equipment, etc. The keyrings are in the shape of cars, ladybirds, animals, flags and specialised things such as Hello Kitty.

It has been a matter of trial and error to find out which items sell and which don't, and even now I get situations where something is selling well so I order more and the sales virtually stop! It is nice to watch how things sell and try to work out the trends so that you can then work out what's best to buy and it certainly gives you job satisfaction when you get it rght!

This is my first full financial year doing this as a serious job and I have kept a full set of accounts so that I can fill in my self-assessment form for the Inland Revenue at the end of the year. Luckily I am an accountant by profession so this is the easy bit for me!

I have sold just over 1,300 items so far since 1st April 2003 at an average net profit of £2.40, so it doesn't earn me a fortune, but it does help with the family finances and it suits me as I can fit the work in around the needs of my parents.

My partner, Dave, has also recently built me a web site where I list the more popular items and I have had a few sales that way t
oo.

If you have to stay at home for whatever reason I would certainly recommend this as a job. It's flexible so you can choose your hours to suit yourself and the earnings are roughly proportional to the amount of time invested. Obviously you will need some capital to start with to buy the stock in the first place, but choose your area of sales well and you will soon recoup your money.

If you are interested to see how the whole thing looks I sell as brave_rufus on Ebay and my shop is called braemargifts. (http://www.stores.ebay.co.uk/BraemarGifts) and my web site can be found at http://www.braemargifts.plus.com/

So there you are I am my own sales manager and you could be too???