How I Built an Online Business and Quit My Job (And How You Can Too!)

I work for myself. I love it because my time is flexible and I only answer to myself. If I'm sick, I take some time off. If I want to take a vacation, there is nobody to ask! Many people have asked me how I do this since I left my job about 2 years ago. Many people would love to do this but have no idea how.

The first thing I would like to say is that working from home doesn't mean sloughing off. Working at home means literally, working at home. First, you need to be a self-starter. You need self-discipline. You need to be able to work without anyone to be accountable to except yourself. Many people say they would like to work for themselves, but then don't really do what it takes to make that happen. They feel it's just too hard. So, step one is deciding if this is what you really want or if it just sounds nice.

I started out on this journey and goal about 10 years ago. As I said previously, I left my job two years ago. This means that I worked at trying to figure out how to build my business, what products to sell, how to get inventory etc, for 8 years before I jumped ship. I even gave up and went to school for a while thinking this was not going to happen, but eventually, it did! It took perseverance and a willingness to work when I wasn't at my job.

Being a frugal person (I assume since you are reading this blog you are one!) is the first step to running your own business. The reason this is the first step is because as a frugal person, you know how to buy products for less than what other people normally pay. The secret to having your own business is to buy low and sell at a higher price. This is called your margin. The wider a margin you can have between the products you buy and sell, the more money you make. I try to have at least a $10.00 margin on my items in order to make it worth my time to list them.

Finding your product is important. It took me a long time to find the right mix of products to sell. After eight years of trial and error, I was on my way. I found some products that I could find regularly to buy and sell. These products had a decent margin. I found a platform to sell on. There are a lot of different online places to sell. Some of the most popular are:

Ebay
Etsy
Amazon
Craigslist

I sell on both Ebay and Amazon and sometimes on Craigslist.

Learning your way around some of these sites can take a lot of time. I would suggest while you are looking for your products to sell, you list some things on your site of choice to familiarize yourself with the site, payment methods, communications etc. You tube can have some good tutorials for some sites too. 

Another thing that took me a long time was actually making the leap. The reason for this was the time I spent at work was actually holding me back from seeing what could be done and spending that time on my business. My Mom sells on Etsy (handmade seaglass jewlery. See her website at http://www.seaglassin.com/. She also has an etsy site at seaglassin.etsy.com). She is retired. Watching her, I began to see what a person could do with more time and online selling. So, finally, I took the leap! I spend maybe on average 25 hours a week working on my online business. Last year, I made more money at my online business than I did at my highest paying job (I usually worked part-time). As I said before, this means working those hours and not diddling them away (like on frugality blogs haha!) but is also means much more freedom and no office politics! (Hear those angels singing?? :))

Another prerequisite to running your own business is you need to be able to manage money well. (Goes hand in hand with frugality!) The reason for this is you will have bills and you will need to pay them. If you spend all your money and can't pay the bills your business accumulates, your business will fail. Last year, more than 2/3 of the money that came into my business was business expenses and then there are taxes too.  

I love working for myself and find it has great advantages. If you want it badly enough you can make it happen with some time, patience and diligence!

Here is an article I found with some ideas:

http://www.businessinsider.com/5-ways-to-make-enough-money-on-the-side-to-quit-your-day-job-2015-11?utm_content=buffer84e67&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

My husband also recently left his day job. Besides my online business, we also have a mini-storage business and some rental property. Reading some books on these subjects can be helpful. A couple books are Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and The Millionaire Next Door  by Thomas J. Stanley.

Happy Building!