Any ideas for a small online business?

twc58 wrote: »

I am 58 and wanting to leave work now, work from home and start an online business.

I am only looking to make £100 a week as I already have a small pension.

I want to sell something that is small in size, not perishable and is unlikley to be returned by the customer (unless faulty).

Any ideas?

Does anyone currently run their own online business?

Thanks

As has been said already anyone with a half decent idea would be likely to be doing it themselves. THere are plenty of us over on the eBay and others board running small businesses, but I very much doubt they would go as far as tell you about their actual stock and sources.

'Only £100' is also quite an ambition to start with unless you are hoping for the sort of stock most of us can only dream about that you buy at 50p and sell at £20 , the reality Is more likely to be buying at about a third of the eventual sale price, then deducting a third of the sale price for fees and expenses less postage leaving a fair bit not huge margin on each sale.

You may be better off looking at a range of goods, perhaps a dozen lines or more and keeping stock in that you can post daily. How much start up capital you have will determine the sort of goods you should look for, and remember when working out profits to allow for losses, returns and stock that you can't shift. I vary my stock all the time and it's like a game of nerves, how much can I sell and how much will I end up stuck with when the market dies?

Do you have an idea of selling venue yet as that can help determine where to start looking for inspiration. Come across to the eBay board and get a few selling tips, but remember that we tend to only post when things go wrong, so it is a rather skewed view of online selling.