Setback City

Getting the business off the ground is proving to be nearly impossible. I'd planned to buy a couple of cases of two different products when the business debit card arrived. It got here early. Both products sold out that same day before I could get home to make the purchases. It was discouraging.

A site that sells overstock goods had a partial pallet of new electronics equipment. I decided to try that instead. I made a spreadsheet to figure out the profit. After cost of goods, shipping costs and Amazon fees, I would've made something like $50 or less with no guarantees of selling it all and no guarantees that the retail prices wouldn't fall and turn the profit into a loss. I looked at another partial pallet of laptop coolers for Macs and did a spreadsheet. After all the costs and fees, that one would lose about $130 with no chance at all for a profit. It was discouraging.

It turns out that once I start selling things I have only 30 days to file a Doing Business As(DBA) form. I went to the county courthouse to get the form. They don't have them. They said a lawyer does that, then the courthouse files it. The state doesn't have them online. I can't find one anywhere. Various web sites will file one for me, but the fees are too high. After a lot of struggling trying to find a way to pay for it, I finally decided not to use the business name. If I use my own name, I don't have to file anything or incorporate or do anything special or pay anything. It's discouraging. I wanted to open up my Amazon store with the business name and slowly build a brand name. It's actually cheaper to start an LLC, but I would automatically need legal and tax advice for that.

I found some Sony MDR10RBT wireless headphones for $88.50 a pair. On Amazon they sell for $199. After all the fees and shipping, the profit would be around $70. However, I'm not allowed to sell them in New condition. Amazon sells them and artificially keeps the price high. The last time they sold on Ebay was last month for $129. A bunch are for sale there now. I have no interest in selling on Ebay, but I had to look just in case. Not being able to sell this brought some discouragement. I found other products like this that I'm also not allowed to sell. Apparently, certain electronics are extremely profitable.

Is there any good news? Almost. I stumbled onto a product I could sell. I spent a lot of time researching how to manufacture it at home. It appeared that I could simply import the raw material from its native country, import plastic containers from China to hold it and seal the containers with an induction sealer. At the last second I compared the ingredients on the two main sellers. They're identical, which tells me both of them are using private labeling from the same company. It also tells me that there's more processing that would have to be done to the raw material than there appeared to be if I wanted to compete with the top two sellers. It was kind of discouraging.
However, I was able to find two companies in the country of origin that do private labeling for that product. Sadly, both have minimum requirements that I can't meet right now. But it would be a product I'd be happy to sell once I was able to.

I'm seeing hindrances at almost every turn. Those two wholesale items selling out the same day I was going to buy them was especially noticeable. Are the roadblocks from God or the devil? I can't tell. My whole life's hindered in some way. This is pretty normal. Blessings seem to come in drabs and dribbles while the obstructions look like mountains. It's not all bad, though. I'm learning a lot without making disastrous mistakes. Right at the last second, the hidden flaws have become apparent before I could commit to a failing course. Maybe the breakthrough is right around the corner.