Could someone advise starting small business please?

[wenevernewthis]

I am going to try to start my own business, the aim being to make things with a complete zero waste, circular model.
This means that all of our products (feel weird saying that considering jts just me at home) are completely waste free. I source second hand materials so absolutely nothing is new. Also when people are finished or the product is looking a bit shabby, lost a piece, etc... they can either send it back and we will fix and resell, or send new piece to them so they can keep it going for longer.

But how do I sell the things?
Etsy is quite overpriced, I think think that's because they take quite a big portion.
I don't really want to sell on amazon because of ethical reasons, my target audience tend to stay away from big companies and look at independent, small ethical businesses. But I don't really know anything about computers or websites. is there am easier way? How do you get started?

(I know i could Google but everyone seems to be trying to sell their 'How to get rich quick' course or their Web design services and I'd rather have the opinions and advice of people who have been there and done it so I don't fall for the same mistakes.)
Also I just love a chat on here.

Shopify.

(Not that I know anything about selling on there personally, but I know people that do).

Etsy is not overpriced when you compare to wholesaling/notonthehightstreet or promoting your own website. They have an instant audience who are your ideal customer.
You just need to build their costs into your prices.

Shopify isn’t a marketplace, it’s a great low cost way to build your own retail site- however, unless you promote it you will not get any traffic. Facebook/instagram/Google ads cost £££.

If I were you I’d get myself on Etsy and at the same time start building my socials/mailing list. Good luck! X

I've never heard of shopify.
and oh what is a mailing list?

I have an Instagram but haven't sold anything before.

and oh see this is why I didn't want to Google, all I got on there was etsy is bad for sellers.

I have a website, a business Facebook and Instagram page.

You can sell bits through the FB page I believe.

My website is with Squarespace, so there is a monthly fee, but you can get some for free, plus FB and IG is too

Tik tok is great for small businesses!

I used to sell on Etsy, many years ago, before it stopped being about handmade.
I'm not sure what you are selling? What is the product?
I will say that it's hard to sell. You can create a website but it's hard to get noticed.
I would start by advertising to friends and family first and asking them to share on their Facebook pages.
Someone else will be along with more business sense I'm sure.

A mailing list is a list of email addresses. You have to get people to sign up to one, you can't just add someone's email address without their consent. Maybe offer a freebie in return for their email address?

Do you have local enterprise offices in the UK? I'm not in the UK but here you can go to them and they run courses and give advice to small businesses, im sure you must have an equivalent? I don't want to be insulting but if you don't even know what a mailing list is then you have a heck of a lot to learn and it might be best for you to attend some kind of (legit) course where you can learn the basics before you start.

Tiktok is where you need to be. Start creating content and you cal sell from there.

Setup a website with square space and setup something like shopify or woocommerce to sell direct from your website. For taking payment I find stripe easiest and lower fees than PayPal.

You also want to get an Instagram and Facebook business page setup - put your content from tiktok on there and vice Versa.

good luck!

Before anything else, you need to find out if what you want to sell has a market. Then you need to work out what your product price point is, how much you need to earn a year and how many you need to sell to earn that amount, taking into account all of your expenditure, tax liabilities etc. You may find that it's impossible to make a profit.

If the numbers seem to work my main advice is start small. You don't need thousands to start up. Make a few examples of your product, get your sales pitch ready, emphasising your USP, create a shop on Etsy, Folksy, Facebook etc and see what happens.

Bear in mind that you need to be a jack of all trades when you start a small business and its all down to you. If your employee fucks up its on you; if the postal strike means your product doesn't get delivered its on you; if you don't sell anything its on you.

Tbh, your best resource for absolutely all knowledge is the Internet and you need to hone your research skills. Asking questions on here will only get you a very small way towards finding what you need to know.