I will start by saying that I am neither well off nor am I destitute. I am in between. I have a solid day job with less than average stress (for right now). I don’t have a brood of little kids running around needing to be ferried from place to place, bathed at night, read bedtime stories… you get the picture.
What I need is more income. The world got a lot more expensive after COVID taxed our supply-chain and the cost for common goods rose and (regardless of what the economists say) has not returned to a level where I can say that my monthly grocery bill is only a fraction of all my expenses.
I added other expenses as well and had some home improvement projects that took a bite out of savings and gave me some debts to pay down. And, like so many other Americans, my household subscribes to services that didn’t exist 10 years ago, and which now everyone treats like these are essentials to living… damn you Netflix for your original programming (and you too Disney, Amazon Prime, etc.)
I did say I no longer have rug rats under my feet, but I also have one college loan from the oldest to pay off, and I am trying to make sure I afford to send the youngest to whatever form of post-high school learning they choose. I do still have one under my roof, and they don’t have a job (yet), but still need to be fed, clothed and all their extracurricular’s paid for.
Now, you may be reading this and saying “hey, at least you can afford that much, I can’t even pay for an oil change.” True. My own circumstances are better than a larger share of the American households, and by no mean am I holding up a pity me sign asking for your sympathy. This isn’t really a comparison between where I am and those who aren’t. I am just setting the foundation here for the journey ahead.
I was looking over my expense versus income and realized I need to make about 1/3 to 1/2 as much as I make now in additional income if I am going to maintain the standards that have existed for the past few years. I immediately jumped onto the sites for freelance and other side-hustle jobs that pay by the hour, project, etc. But I soon realized that (despite my over 35 years as a professional in a number of areas), my skillsets for most side work were very rusty and the competition for these meager offerings too vast, and frankly, mostly pitiful options that seemed almost abusive to me.
I then looked at the simpler things. A decade ago I pushed myself with a second job working an overnight shift in a big box store loading stock on shelves. It helped, but the physical toll was killer. Now, 10 years later, I couldn’t imagine trying to do that level of physical labor again. A less-demanding job on the body, and one I thought was very much capable, was driving a car service vehicle in the evenings a few nights a week. I still have the application from a local limo/car service company in my desk drawer. But, the woman I share my life with wasn’t so keen on me working nights like that and being on the road after getting up every day at 6:00 AM.
Then she showed me a YouTube video she found about making money “easily” by selling stuff as POD on Etsy.
Twenty-seven days ago, I launched my Etsy store and began this journey to make it rich as an entrepreneur.
But… those videos weren’t really telling the whole story. Selling print on demand on Etsy (or Shopify or even your own site) isn’t as easy as they say. I’ve been learning that.
This journey that I am sharing with you will start where I started nearly one month ago, and then go forward. Will I succeed? Will I give up? Will I spend more than I earned?
I don’t know yet. And if you are like me, and you are new to online selling, or thinking about it, I hope you’ll follow along. I am going to share what I have learned so far, and if I am successful, I’ll let you know what I did to get there… and for free.