Like everything in Eve Online you will need to spend time training skills in game. There is not much a trader can do with the few trade slots that default characters get. The more trade slots, the more markets and items that character can play with. Skills can also reduce the fees related to trading by a small but significant amount. A good trader can be paying a 100 million isk a week in broker and accounting fees, if not more. Skills are vital.
A good idea would be to create an alt to do the trading, but this has drawbacks and benefits. This is the first step to a successful career in trading. Decide whether a trade alt would be beneficial or not.
Pros:
1.) Keeps Main Free: Having a character dedicated to trading means you can still use your main to roam around the universe. It is a big pain in the ass when you can not do things with your friends because it would uproot your trade empire.
2.) Anonymous: Nothing better then selling things to both sides of an armed conflict, even if you are on one side of it.
3.) Easy Bookkeeping: Using a character for trading and other things makes the bookkeeping fairy cry. It is so much easier to have dedicated characters.
Cons:
1.) Rep grind: Depending on what you are doing, it may be necessary to grind reputation with certain factions. The higher your reputation with the station owners is the lower your broker fee is.
2.) Wasted Skill Points: You might be training skills already trained on your main. If you are looking to just trade with the alt then an alt may not waste that many skill points, but if you are looking to get into hauling then it is a different beast. You can always use your main to haul, but then your trade empire is still dependent on your main character.
