New Business Advice

clj1

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Hi,

I am wanting to start a small business selling homemade bath products etc. For example, bath bombs, soaps, face masks etc. I would start by selling on Ebay/Facebook. I am currently employed and contracted to only 4 hours a week. I would still like to keep working at my current employment place but also maintain this business.

I am just unsure on a few things such as would I have to pay tax and would I have to get insurance? Would I have to register the business and if so, how would I go about this?

Thanks in advance :)
 

mbmetro100

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clj1 said:
Hi,

I am wanting to start a small business selling homemade bath products etc. For example, bath bombs, soaps, face masks etc. I would start by selling on Ebay/Facebook. I am currently employed and contracted to only 4 hours a week. I would still like to keep working at my current employment place but also maintain this business.

I am just unsure on a few things such as would I have to pay tax and would I have to get insurance? Would I have to register the business and if so, how would I go about this?

Thanks in advance :)

Rather than selling homemade stuff and setting up payment gateways, stocking products or using a company to ship the items on your behalf, why not set up your own website and sell them items as an Amazon affiliate?

I know a fella who done this with baby products and only sells items that are available in the Amazon marketplace. He now makes a four figure income per month from this one site alone and doesn't have to handle a single item or deal with customer complaints.

I suppose the profit margin on homemade items is much better than selling a third party item :)
 

Jon

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TheRewardGuy said:
mbmetro100 said:
clj1 said:
Hi,

I am wanting to start a small business selling homemade bath products etc. For example, bath bombs, soaps, face masks etc. I would start by selling on Ebay/Facebook. I am currently employed and contracted to only 4 hours a week. I would still like to keep working at my current employment place but also maintain this business.

I am just unsure on a few things such as would I have to pay tax and would I have to get insurance? Would I have to register the business and if so, how would I go about this?

Thanks in advance :)

Rather than selling homemade stuff and setting up payment gateways, stocking products or using a company to ship the items on your behalf, why not set up your own website and sell them items as an Amazon affiliate?

I know a fella who done this with baby products and only sells items that are available in the Amazon marketplace. He now makes a four figure income per month from this one site alone and doesn't have to handle a single item or deal with customer complaints.

I suppose the profit margin on homemade items is much better than selling a third party item :)

I am hoping to join him soon, but will need to sell more than 1 pair of cheap earrings first!
You could always do both - have a site that features your own stuff and affiliate products too?

Good question that poses.

If you are going to start up a business and don't necessarily have the cash to lay down on stock up front you are maybe forced into drop shipping/Affiliate which offers less profit compared to buying the stock yourself and maybe getting more profit.
 

clj1

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[quotthor=mbmetro100 link=topic=204.msg1787#msg1787 date=1394699302]
clj1 said:
Hi,

I am wanting to start a small business selling homemade bath products etc. For example, bath bombs, soaps, face masks etc. I would start by selling on Ebay/Facebook. I am currently employed and contracted to only 4 hours a week. I would still like to keep working at my current employment place but also maintain this business.

I am just unsure on a few things such as would I have to pay tax and would I have to get insurance? Would I have to register the business and if so, how would I go about this?

Thanks in advance :)

Rather than selling homemade stuff and setting up payment gateways, stocking products or using a company to ship the items on your behalf, why not set up your own website and sell them items as an Amazon affiliate?

I know a fella who done this with baby products and only sells items that are available in the Amazon marketplace. He now makes a four figure income per month from this one site alone and doesn't have to handle a single item or deal with customer complaints.

I suppose the profit margin on homemade items is much better than selling a third party item :)
[/quote]

Sounds like a stupid question, but what do you mean by an amazon affiliate and how would I go about this?
 

mbmetro100

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Sounds like a stupid question, but what do you mean by an amazon affiliate and how would I go about this?

You are effectively the middle man between the customer and the seller and you would receive a commission (about 4%) for any sale generated via your Amazon affiliate link. Finding the products to promote is easy by typing in "bath bombs" "soaps" "face masks" in to the Amazon search facility.

Their scheme is free to join and they usually accept everyone, just make sure you have a site or blog as proof of how you're going to promote the products in the Amazon marketplace.

UK Program >> https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/

US Program >> https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

I'm certainly burning the midnight oil tonight!!
 

Jon

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Imagine you (or your site) as a massive signpost for people to use who want to find some information out about a product.

Say you had a page that was to do with,i dunno fishing rods. You write a review of the rod based on your experience of it, link to the product on amazon and hopefully make some cash when they purchase the product.
 

mnporter2001

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I'm going to add my input to this discussion !

First off from my experience you are going to want to stay away from eBay, I say this for several reasons, firstly eBay has changed and i'm afraid for the worse when it comes to new sellers and sellers that have a relatively small turnover, and by small I mean less than £100.000 per financial year.
They simply do not care about small companies or one man bands any longer, gone are the days that eBay was great for dragging all sorts of weird and wonderful things out of your attic and selling them, no what they want now is proven items with barcode's on.

Another issue you will find is that eBay will force you into a no quibble 14 day money back guarantee which is not a lot of help to you once they have used half the soap and then decided they don't like it, this may sound like a joke but I can assure you eBay will make you refund.

Onto Facebook:

A great source of income, simply because its a free selling platform, however and again from experience there are some reel strange people on there so be prepared to have the patience of a saint whilst dealing with problems

Amazon is great but I don't think the affiliate way is to go from what you have said in your opening post, I would jump right in there and open a shop on their platform and start selling.

Anyway there is my input, hoe it helps a little

Thanks
Mark
 

clj1

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With Facebook and Amazon, would I still need the insurance and pay tax

Thank you for everyones messages. Been a great help
 

mbmetro100

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clj1 said:
With Facebook and Amazon, would I still need the insurance and pay tax

Thank you for everyones messages. Been a great help

If you went down the route that I suggested as an Amazon affiliate then, you wouldn't need insurance, but you would still have to register for tax. If you want to open and online shop with Amazon then, you would need both.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/+/http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/selfemployed/register-selfemp.htm
 

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