REAL TRUTH owning a small business 🌧️

Owning a small business always sounds the best, having your own schedule and probably not having to report to anyone else for your work duties but let’s be very real on what to expect being a small business owner.

Firstly, you will spend all your savings away and probably not break even at the start. Before you can start selling, you will need to have some products first available for sale. Manufacturing products = money. From sample to production, variations of products could easily cost you few hundred to a few thousands.

Next we talk about platform of sales.

Online sounds like a more affordable option, to look more professional as a brand, owning a website is a dream of many. Shopify works like a subscription base and woocommerce is more of building your own platform and paying the service in one shot. Building your own platform allows you to do more customisations but it also means you need to pay for domain, hosting, SSL etc.

Basic would cost from $500 annually (or even more 😅)

Now, what about offline? Offline would be conventions, markets and malls. Rental usually ranges $100-$250 per day. The duration of booths can range from 2-7 days depending on the organiser. Are you able to commit to booth 7 days a week? If not, you require extra manpower costs. If you pay a part timer $9 per hour, that will be $9 x 10hours = $90 of cost for a day. Some places requires GTO of a percentage of your sales (mainly retail). Don’t forget you need to transport your stocks and it usually cost me $30 each trip!

To add on, there are platform fees online and if you accept cards at your booths, there will be fees as well. So be sure to take note!

Miscellaneous Fees - Packagings for products, namecards, paper bags, envelopes, stationaries, cleaning supplies, transport, free gifts, subscription plans like Adobe etc. Everything adds up to quite a number.

If you are looking at starting your own business, here’s my tip. Do it as a side hustle first, save up money, if it allows someday, quit your job and work on your hobby 🙆🏻‍♀️ That’s what I did!

It’s gonna cost you a lot of money and you can’t really quit after you start 🥹 Had to have faith and keep it going, even if it’s baby steps. mochibuddies didn’t grow overnight, but I always had faith growing it even if it’s gonna take me a realllllllly long time.

you can also find me at @mochibuddies on Instagram to check out more of my happy works! You can comment below your experience too / shop name as I would love to hear! 🥰

I wish every small business owners all the best as well! You guys are amazing!!!!!!!

#My9to5 #smallbusinessowner #artistofsingapore