Mary from GA

[MaryBarber]

Hi, guys! I'm Mary and I just decided to start my own online (and physical, if my body would still allow for!) business, though I'm still not sure what would that be. If you can help me to choose what type of products to sell, you may base it with my interests, which include books, photography and jewelries. What do you guys think?

(I'm sorry if this might be a duplicate post, I didn't find my first post similar to this one so I thought of reposting it. Thanks!)

[Patrysha]

Welcome Mary.

Starting with your interests is always a good plan, but you'll find what's even more important is deciding what of your interests can be monetized with the skills you already have or are willing to learn. You have to find the place in time and space where your interests intersect with what people are ready and willing to buy.

[KristineS]

A good first step might be looking around in the particular interest areas you mentioned to see what's already being done. That will help you see if the market is too saturated in one area and may suggest some ideas for what you might like to do.

[vangogh]

Welcome to the forum Mary. I think starting with your interests is a good idea. Starting and running a business comes with ups and downs. It's much easier to get through the down times when you enjoy what you're doing. Books, photography, and jewelry are all good candidates for a business. You probably want to pick one and then think about who potential customers might be.

Good luck getting started and ask any questions you have. Thanks for joining the community.

[Gabe]

Hey Mary, welcome to the forum! The hardest part of business is selling. Marketing and making sales is generally orders of magnitude more difficult than anything else.

If you're new to it and haven't started yet, I recommend you see how you like selling first. A good way to do that is by trying to sell things for someone else. For example, say you're interested in jewelry. Find a jeweler/jewelry company you like that offers an affiliate/commission program and sell for them. Build a website, write your copy, do your sales and marketing etc.

If you find that you like it and want to continue, then start selling your own stuff. It's a fairly simple switch since you'd already have your site and copy ready. This will let you experience selling and see if you like it before making any substantial investments in product. This is just one way to do it, but hope it helps!