Online shop and quit my job?

I freelance as an eCom photographer and work mostly with small online startups. One thing that helps is batching loads of content in advance—photos, descriptions, social posts—so I’m not working 24/7. It takes a bit to figure out your workflow, but once you’ve got a decent system, it’s manageable. I took the leap while still working part-time, then gradually dropped hours as it picked up.

OP it’s not that hard.

I’ve got a business - with staff and I’m considering the same because I want to spend more time with my kids.

I built my own website in lockdown whilst my kids were feral and I was going through a disgusting marriage break up and I didn’t even know how to even use word at the time. So if I can do it any one can.

There are millions of YouTube videos to point you in the right direction but be careful you don’t go down rabbit holes - which I do 🙈

Message me if you like and we can chat about it 😊

I have online shops. It grew well and eventually DH stopped work as well and it’s our family income. A few tips:-

Don’t give up the day job yet. It is still possible to build a business, but definitely much harder than it was.

Online marketplaces (eBay, Amazon, Etsy etc.) cost, but they will get you eyeballs cheaper than your own website. The best marketplace will depend on your product, but I find Etsy to be an awful lot of effort for little reward and dumped them last year.

Consider your hourly rate. If you are making less than supermarket wages with a lot more headache and little upward prospect then please give yourself a break and go and stack shelves. A hobby is nice, but you will drain the enjoyment out of it for slave labour wages.

Edibles and toiletries are a pain. Food safety certs, skin testing, allergies, best before dates.

Think about scalability now because if you take off you will have little capacity to be sorting things out when you are manically making, packing and shipping 24 hours a day.

Pricing - there is a magical price zone. Too cheap and you attract bargain hunters who want the moon on a stick for tuppence. These people are often demanding and hard work. They complain about stuff and basically want your product for free. Too expensive and people are reluctant to commit without either laborious hand holding or in person shopping. I want shoppers rich enough to be low maintenance and who don’t overthink about spending £40-100. Quality product, quality service. Don’t be the cheapest.

There was a thread a few weeks ago from an Etsy seller who said business has really slowed down compared to previous years. Nay be worth reading.

If you work part time currently I'd say that's a really good basis. Don't give up the day job just yet but focus your other free time on your business.

Do lots of research. Currently your time is a free commodity. Business plan. Consistency. Diligence. Creativity.

No reason why you can't make a success on your terms. Others do.

Handmade chocolate stuff?

Open you TikTok shop, definitely. I m seeing lots of young people out there, selling their wares, especially in postal-friendly format (like brownie slabs, brownies and luxury dips, cake slices, etc.)

Overall, Etsy is dying out in terms of quality, traffic, and their fees are outrageous. I m there because I still have a few orders, but it's not a priority.

I have a Shopify too (forgot to mention), but unless you have traffic to direct it to, no one will find it. But if you use Etsy for your Insta sales, I would switch to Shopify right now (much lower fees with Shopify) and stop leaving money on the table.

There's a free app that allows you to connect your Shopify with TikTok so you can manage everything from Shopify, but the sync didn't work for all my products.

The market round here is fairly saturated with people (mostly mums) trying to sell personalised stuff so they can work around having a family and not go back to their old job. If it’s the same near you, then obviously be aware! Are you selling stuff that’s different to others?

the prices of chocolate and all the other ingredients has spiralled out of control,

This is true but I've been to many events/fetes where prices have been what you might consider to be on the high side for confectionery/bakes but the taste is far superior to supermarket bought items.

You could start off at local produce markets, village/school fetes, craft markets look around for what's selling, what's missing.

OP in fairness you wrote the post and asked for thoughts… of course I only had those few sentences to go on 😅 all of the questions I posed and many many more need to be considered by all business owners.

You’ve shared more info that you didn’t include at first that now shows you might be well able to handle a business - you’ve done it already! So you definitely don’t have ‘no idea’. I’d say Shopify or Etsy are the two big ones, I always see people offering personalised items on Etsy. YouTube is a good free resource, there is probably videos of people comparing the two sites and what works better etc. I’d say spend a while building up your stock (making, crafting things), open an Insta page maybe and take commissions to get some business practice in. Once you have a few followers and sales you could set up your shop site then.

I m an online seller since December, ebay, Etsy and now TikTok, 200-300 listings on each platform. Steady income and growing. No other investment than my time so far (I had an idea).

My products are in demand, so I have not done content/social media seriously yet, but it s now my priority because it s the only way to scale up. I m currently building my own studio, lives coming soon, here we go😆

For my business, TikTok is where the action is. Millions of daily users/potential clients, their fees are much lower than ebay/Etsy, they offer massive discounts to both sellers/buyers. And there, you re not just a listing, if you do good content, you ll attract clients.

But it depends of what you want to sell and to whom.

If you want more details, a leg up or any questions, pls DM or ask here, happy to share what I have learned 🙂

Dh did sort of this 10 years ago. He started a largely online business selling a craft product (maybe you might say artwork, depending on what is being sold), sells through a website, instagram, ebay/etsy, etc. Started out of our shed and now has two commercial premises and turnover of probably at least half a £1m a year. He did it nights and weekends while working his office job for a few months before he quit and went FT at it.

But what's important is that he knew the product he wanted to create and sell, had the unique skills to create it, knew the market and cost of raw materials, had a business plan, a business degree and a online marketing background. It was very good financial decision for us, but it was a big leap to start.

You have to know your market, your costs, your profit margins very well to take the risk. If it isn't something you absolutely love doing, I'd be inclined to find something you do love as a way out of teaching, ideally that offers the stability and protections of employment, because you do lose out on things like maternity leave, annual leave, sick pay, a workplace pension, etc. when you go self-employed.

Based on that post - no, you can’t.
But is it possible for some people to make a living from an online shop? Yeah.

Your attitude is a bit defeatist and doesn’t sound like you want to own a business, yet you want to open an online shop?? I’d really try to figure out if you actually want to be a business owner or if you just want out from your current job.

You say you haven’t a clue what you’re doing - are you going to learn? Have you looked into other similar businesses, what business model you would like to adopt, how much marketing you would have to do, how you would manage and store stock, how much international shipping would cost, your legal responsibilities with returns/lost or faulty items?

As far as I know most start ups have losses for the first few years, can your finances manage that? Will you need to get a loan to kick off the business?

edit: just want to add even your username OP - rollonretirement 😅 if you start a small business who knows when you’ll be able to retire, how will you fill your pension pot if you’re making losses?

What are your products? Do you have an established customer base? If not, what market research have you done so far?

Keep your job and set it up in your spare time and see how it goes.. it that's time and most businesses fail within a year or dont make a profit. Good luck x

Keep your job for now and find an online mentor. A lot of online courses look like scams, so be careful. There are free tutorials on youtube. It took me around 2 years before I started making money and 5 years to make more more than my job. I have tiktok shop, amazon and my own websites. Learn digital marketing, google analytics. These are the two main important things to attract customers to your websites. I still have my job simply because I want to keep contributing to the pension and I don't mind the job.